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MESMERISM 



AND 



ITS OPPOIENTS 



WITH 



A NARRATIVE OF CASES 



GEORGE SANDBY, JUN. M.A 




NEW YORK: 

BENJAMIN & YOUNG, 

62 John Street 



1844. 







J 



A 



MESMERISM 



AN© 



ITS OPPOIENTS 



1. NARRATIVE OF CASES. 



BY 



GEORGE SANDBY, JUN. M.A. 



NEW YORK: 

BENJAMIN & YOUNG, 
62 John Street. 

1844. 



j 



v 6^ 



R. Craighead, Printer, 112 Fulton Street. 



L 



PREFACE. 



The following pages have grown out of a little pamphlet, that 
was published last summer, called "Mesmerism the Gift of God." 

The favorable reception of that letter by the public, and the 
demand for a second impression, have induced the Author, at 
the suggestion of several friends, to enter more fully into the 
subject, and to meet the various and contradictory objections 
that are popularly advanced. 

This work, therefore, professes, not only to treat of the religious 
scruples that have been raised in the minds of some Christians, 
but to discuss w T ith the philosopher the previous question as to 
the truth of Mesmerism, for a due inquiry into wmich, circum- 
stances have greatly favored the writer. 

The First Chapter is little more than a reprint of the origi- 
nal pamphlet, in answer to the charge of Satanic agency. 

The Second Chapter enters more at large into the same topic ; 
and showing the tendency of the human mind to see the myste- 
rious in the inexplicable, proves, by example, the periodical re- 
appearance of this absurd accusation. The Author also exam- 
ines the unfortunate mistake, which too many of his own pro- 
fession are disposed to commit, be their religious creed what it 
may, of thinking that they do God service by depreciating his 
gifts; because the parties that employ them, hold opposite 
tenets to their own. This feeling is shown to arise, sometimes 
from a zeal without knowledge, and often from that love of 
spiritual power, which has disfigured the brightest pages in the 
history of the Church. 



It PREFACE. 

The Third and Fourth Chapters contain an analysis of the 
common objections against the truth of Mesmerism. Some 
remarkable cases are adduced from the writer's own experience. 
An accumulation of other facts is given from the testimony of 
parties whose standing in society is a pledge for the correctness 
of what they state. The curative power of Mesmerism in 
disease is proved by induction and observation. And the medi- 
cal profession is invited to a reconsideration of their unfavorable 
verdict. 

The Fifth Chapter discusses a common opinion as to the dan- 
gers of Mesmerism ; — and its fallacy is in great measure ex- 
posed. 

At the request of a friend, the Sixth Chapter has examined, 
at some length, the bearing of the wonders of Mesmerism on 
the miracles of the New Testament. It is notorious, that a feel- 
ing is gaining ground that these several facts exhibit an equality 
of power ; and that the divine nature of the one is impaired by 
the extraordinary character of the other. The consideration 
of this part of the subject necessarily led to a detailed analysis 
of the Scriptural events : of course, the unbeliever in the phe- 
nomena will deem such an inquiry preposterous and laughable ; 
the Christian, however, who knows that Mesmerism is an exist- 
ing fact in nature, will not regard the examination as superflu- 
ous ; and even to the philosopher such an investigation ought to 
be interesting. 

The concluding Chapter compares the phenomena of natural 
somnambulism and of Mesmerism with certain modern miracles 
among the Wesleyans and Roman Catholics. The latter facts 
are stripped of the marvellous by a narrative of what occurred 
in the jhouse of a friend. Particular allusion is made to those 
wonders in the Tyrol, with the account of which the Earl of 
Shrewsbury, in a recent letter addressed to Mr. Ambrose Phillips, 
perplexed and pleased the Protestant or Romish Churches. 



TREFACE. r 

In the Appendix are given a few factSj taken from the history 
of several natural sleepwalkers, by which it will be seen that 
the " miracles of Mesmerism " are nothing else than certain 
phenomena, which have been often developed by nature, in the 
spontaneous action of disease. 

No inquiry is made into the practical part of the subject, or 
into the system of treatment that is adopted with a patient. 
For information under that head, the reader is referred to De- 
leuze and Teste. 

The Author cannot conclude without acknowledging the vast 
obligations that he owes to the " Isis Revelata " of Mr. Colqu- 
houn, and to " Facts in Mesmerism " by the Rev. Chauncy H, 
Townshend. Those who are disposed to follow up the subject, 
cannot but turn with profit to the varied information that those 
able works afford. 



i 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

Progress of Mesmerism — Opposition to Mesmerism — Charge of Satanic 
Agency — Sermon preached at Liverpool — Rev. Hugh M'Neile — Examina- 
tion of Sermon — Mesmerism and Electricity — Mesmerism not supernatural 
— Why general Laws of Mesmerism not stated — Why Mesmeric Phenome- 
na not uniform in all Patients — Sermon unworthy of Mr. M'Neile's Re- 
putation. 

CHAPTER H. 

Mesmeric Agent invisible — Gravitation — Anecdote from West Indies — New 
System of Remedies marvellous — Power of Clergy and spiritual Tyranny 
— Witchcraft — Bark introduced by Jesuits — Inoculation — Vaccination — 
Sin of arraigning God's Bounties — What Scripture Doctrine of Evil Spirits 
— Charge brought against Mesmerisers — Lines " On hearing Mesmerism 
called ' impious.' " 

CHAPTER III. 

Unbelievers in Mesmerism — Author's own Experience — Remarkable Cases 
— Mesmerisers in England — Cures and Operations in England — Progress 
in Scotland, in Germany, in France, in United States — Mesmerism 
proved to be a powerful Remedy in Pain and Disease. 

CHAPTER IV. 

Arguments against Truth of Mesmerism — Monotony — Hysteria — Imitation 
— Faith — Imagination — " Mesmerise me, and I will believe you " — First 
French Report — Second French Report of Medical Men alone — Mr. 
Wakley — London University — British Association and Mr. Braid — Royal 
Medical and Chirurgical Society — Great Names among Believers in Mes- 
merism. 



Till 

CHAPTER V. 

Dangers of Mesmerism, Physical and Moral — " Horror " of Mesmerism — 
Difficulties of Mesmerism — Hint for younger Members of the Faculty. 

CHAPTER VI. 

Mesmeric Cuies and Miracles of New Testament— Comparison between 
them — Fears of the Christian groundless — Touch of the Mesmeriser — 
Clairvoyance not miraculous. 

CHAPTER VII. 

Marvels and lying Wonders — Explanation of fancied Miracles— Ecstatic 
Dreamers and Prophetesses — Modern Miracles among Wesleyans and Ro- 
man Catholics tested by what occurred in a friend's house — Lord Shrews- 
bury and the Tyrols — w Transfer of Thought " — Mesmeric Action conta- 
gious — Conclusion. 



i 



MESMERISM 

AND 

ITS OPPONENTS 



CHAPTER I. 

The decided advance that Mesmerism has made in this country 
within the last two years, — the number of cautious and practical 
men that maintain its reality and utility, — the variety of diseases 
to which it has been successfully applied, — all lead the friends of 
truth to hope that the public mind has taken a turn on the subject. 
In spite of the discredit under which it is often compelled to 
labor, through the vanity or ignorance of itinerant lecturers, the 
good cause is making a steady and certain progress. For it is 
not by public exhibitions at a theatre, that delicate experiments 
on the human frame can be conducted in due compliance with the 
conditions which are essential to their success. Those conditions 
can only be fully appreciated by men, that are accustomed to the 
niceties which the demonstration of the simplest phenomena in 
chemistry and electricity requires. The failures, therefore, that 
arise from the disturbing influences of a crowded audience on the 
nervous system of the patient, — the disgust occasioned by the 
disputes between the lecturer and the spectators, — the suspicion, 
and perhaps occasionally the detection, of imposture, are constantly 
checking, in different quarters, that tide of public opinion that is 
gradually rising in favor of this science. 

Still, in defiance of these drawbacks, it keeps advancing. Men 
almost universally begin to think that " there is something in it" 
and on further investigation they find that that small " something" 
is a very powerful reality. No one, not even those who make 
inquiries on the subject, are aware of the great extent to which 
the practice of Mesmerism is carried on, quietly and unobtrusive- 
ly, in private families. Having corresponded much on the subject, 
I have been astonished at finding the numbers who apply to it 
for relief. Men's minds are evidently ripening for its reception. 
They have clearly reached that state, in which an impression can 
be made. Till that state has, to a certain degree, arrived, it mat- 
1 



2 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

ters not what may be the subject-matter, no new truth can be suc- 
cessfully established. Be it in religion, or politics, or natural 
philosophy, or medicine, all the books and arguments in its favor 
fall unheeded on the public, till its facts and statements have been 
for some time well shaken together in men's minds, and other and 
external circumstances predisposed them towards its acceptance. 
No undue exertions can force this period forward, or bring it pre- 
maturely into being. Prejudice, ignorance, bad education, and 
self-interest, will have their triumph and their day. But when 
once the signs of vitality have shown themselves, we may accele- 
rate the growth. We may then hasten the progress very materi- 
ally. It is my conviction that Mesmerism has at length reached 
this critical point ; — that it has obtained a considerable lodgment 
among reasoning people ; — and that from opportunities with which 
I have been eminently favored, it is in my power to promote its 
establishment very essentially. It is, then, the purpose of this 
work to combat those arguments, which are most generally ad- 
vanced against Mesmerism, — to strip the subject of those marvels 
with which popular if norance has surrounded it, and to show that 
animal magnetism is nothing else than the employment of a com- 
mon and simple agent, which the Supreme Intelligence has pro- 
vided in mercy for his creatures, and of which nothing but preju- 
dice or superstition can decline to make use. 

I shall begin with that view of the question to which accidental 
circumstances more strongly, in the first instance, directed my 
attention, — I mean the opinion, that Mesmerism is a mysterious 
and unholy power, from the exercise of which good men and 
Christians ought to keep aloof. It is needful to make our com- 
mencement hence : for the class of readers to whom I more par- 
ticularly address myself, must be first assured that the practice is 
neither presumptuous nor sinful, before we can expect them to 
study its phenomena, or be witnesses of its effect as a sanative 
process. 

The opinion, then, of the irreligious character of this science 
has been mainly promoted by a sermon, that appeared in one of 
the numbers of the Penny Pulpit, and has been actively circulated 
through the country, entitled " Satanic Agency and Mesmerism," 
and which is alleged to have been preached in Liverpool by the 
Rev. Hugh M'Neile. ^ ' 

This sermon, however, was not published with the sanction of 
the preacher, and so far he is not responsible : but inasmuch as 
its sale is a matter of notoriety in the town wherein he resides ; — 
and as no steps have been taken by him for a disavowal of its 
contents, though an opening for that very purpose was good- 
naturedly afforded him ; — and as the short-hand writer, from whose 
notes the sermon was printed, is ready, we are informed, to make 
affidavit of the accuracy of his report, — it may fairly be inferred, 
how incredible soever it may sound, that this sermon, with perhaps 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 3 

some little variation of language, was actually preached by Mr. 
M'Neile. 

Now a sermon put forth, even in this unauthorized manner, with 
the prestige of so popular a name, certainly deserves every re- 
spectful consideration. The number, moreover, of Mr. M'Neile's 
admirers, and the zeal* with which they distribute this publication 
among the thoughtful and the religious, give additional importance 
to its pages ; — and it having come to my own knowledge, that 
several parties had been prevented from adopting or witnessing 
the curative effects of Mesmerism, through scruples of conscience 
raised by this very discourse, I was prepared to bestow upon it a 
much more careful perusal than intrinsically it requires. 

Believing, then, as I do most firmly, that Mesmerism is a mighty 
remedial agent, mercifully vouchsafed by the beneficent Creator 
for the mitigation of human misery — a remedy to be employed, 
like every other remedy, prayerfully, thankfully, and with an hum- 
ble dependence on the will of Him who sent the chastisement, 
and can alone remove it, — having daily reason, too, to bless God 
for the introduction of this very remedy within the circle of my 
own family, it is difficult for me to express the amazement, the 
regret, the feelings akin to something like shame, with which I 
first read this most deplorable publication. And knowing the de- 
lusion under which so many labor on this question — a delusion 
which the unfortunate language of this sermon has tended so 
greatly to strengthen amongst the ignorant and the superstitious, I 
feel it to be nothing short of a sacred Christian duty laid upon me 
to use my endeavors to lessen the error. And if these pages 
should be the means of removing the prejudices of but one family, 
or of alleviating the pains of but one afflicted sufferer, through his 
adoption of Mesmeric aid, the knowledge of it would give me a 
gratification which I would not exchange for many of the most 
coveted distinctions of eloquence and power. 

To much, however, of the earlier passages of this sermon no 
Scriptural reader can offer any objection. Where it presents 
from the Bible a digest of the evidence for Satanic agency, and 
of the condition of the fallen angels, and of their power over the 
race of man ; where their fearful spiritual influence on our de- 
praved nature and deceitful hearts is laid bare in all its deformity ; 



* My readers may judge of the activity with which anti-mesmerists and 
their emissaries circulate this sermon, when they learn that some thousand, 
copies have been sold, and a reprint called for. It was sent, for instance, to 
my own house by some anonymous neighbors, with the intention, it is pre- 
sumed, of deterring us in our course at the very moment we were receiving 
the most providential benefit; and it was in answer to this well-meant im- 
pertinence, and to the weak or wicked nonsense that was elsewhere muttered 
about a minister of the Gospel permitting diabolical practices under his roof, 
that I was originally induced, somewhat in self-defence, to take up the 
subject. 



4 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

to all this the well-instructed Christian tremblingly subscribes. 
When, therefore, Mr. M'Neile is alleged to state, " not only that 
there did exist such a thing as Satanic agency, but that it con- 
tinued to exist after the incarnation of Christ ; that it continued 
to exist amongst men after the resurrection of Christ ; that it is 
predicted to exist until the second coming of Christ ;" to all these 
and similar positions I am not prepared to express any dissent. 
But when, from these premises, he goes on to assert that certain 
peculiar facts, recorded in Chambers' Edinburgh Journal, and of 
the reality of which he does not appear to doubt, are, " beyond 
all question, beyond the course of nature," or, in other words, 
supernatural and the result of some- miraculous or diabolical 
agency, what thinking mind does not see that such a conclusion 
is most illogical and absurd 1 Is there no other alternative ? Is 
nothing else possible ? Is nothing else probable ? Before so 
strong and momentous a decision were thus peremptorily pro- 
nounced, should not a fair and candid man at least stoop to in- 
quire, to investigate, to consider calmly, whether some better 
explanation were not admissible ? Should a lover of truth — 
should a friend to whatever might alleviate suffering humanity, 
thus hastily, and, ex cathedra, deliver an adverse opinion upon a 
science which, to say the least, is at present only in its infancy ? 
If we cannot admire the reasoning faculty that this sermon evin- 
ces, can we, on the other hand, praise its charity ? " In forming 
a judgment of this," says Mr. M'Neile, "I go, of course, on 
what I have read. / have seen nothing of it, nor do I think it 
right to tempt God by going to see it. I have not faith to go in 
the name of the Lord Jesus, and to command the Devil to depart." 
Really, any one would suppose that he were reading the ignorant 
ebullition of some dark monk in the middle ages, rather than the 
sentiments of an educated Protestant of the nineteenth century. 
What is this but a revival of the same spirit that called forth a 
papal anathema against the " starry " Galileo ? What, but an 
imitation of the same objections which pronounced the doctrine 
of Antipodes as incompatible with the faith, and maintained that 
the theory of Columbus threw discredit on the Bible ? Verily, 
the University of Salamanca, which opposed the dogged resist- 
ance of theological objections to the obscure Genoese, and the 
Inquisition at Rome, that condemned the philosopher of Pisa, 
might claim a kindred associate in the minister of St. Jude's ! 
For, according to Mr. M'Neile, Mesmerism must be " nothing but 
human fraud for gain sake," or something " beyond the power of 
unassisted man to accomplish." Is my brother-divine, then, so 
intimately versed in all the mighty secrets of Nature ? Has he 
so thoroughly fathomed her vast and various recesses, that he 
ventures to pronounce everything that may be contrary to, or be- 
yond his own knowledge and experience, as the invention of evil 
spirits, or the contrivance of evil men ? Is there nothing new to 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 5 

be discovered ? Are the regions of light and life exhausted and 
laid bare ? Have we at last reached the ultima Thule of art and 
science ? " It is not in nature for any one to bear to be so treat- 
ed," says Mr. M'Neile, authoritatively ; introducing at the same 
time and in the midst of the same sentence this evasive and con- 
tradictory exception, " so far as we have yet learned.'''' And hav- 
ing previously assumed the sinfulness of Mesmerism, and rather 
regretted that he had not " the faith to bid the Devil to depart," 
he again goes on, and says, " there may be some power in nature 
. . . some secret operation . . . some latent power in nature, 
which is now being discovered . . . something like the power 
of compressed steam . . .or like electricity." Why, this is the 
very point in question. This is the very subject of the contro- 
versy. This is the very fact which the large and increasing body 
of believers in Mesmerism confidently assert. And " if there 
may be such a power in nature," why does he prematurely de- 
nounce it as diabolical, and the act of Satan, before the truth has 
been fairly and fully established ? Why not wait, and examine, 
and patiently and prayerfully study the statements, the experi- 
ments, and the results that present themselves, and with a serious 
thinking spirit revolve the evidence of the whole matter, and say 
whether perchance it may not be " the gift of God " (Eccl. iii. 
13). " Be not rash with thy mouth (says the royal preacher), 
and let not thine heart be hasty to utter anything before God ; for 
God is in heaven and thou upon earth ; therefore let thy words be 
few " (Eccl. v. 2). Surely it were the part of a wise and sober 
Christian, who remembereth that " nothing is impossible with 
God," to weigh a great and curious question like this in an humble 
posture of mind, and not rashly to pronounce of his fellow-men, 
who, for their faith and their attainments in grace, may, for aught 
he knows, be as acceptable with the Saviour as himself, that they 
are agents and instruments of the evil one ! Washington Irving* 
tells us, that when Petro Gonzales de Mendoza, Archbishop of 
Toledo and Grand Cardinal of Spain, became first acquainted 
with the views of Columbus, he feared that they were tainted 
with heterodoxy, and incompatible with the form of earth de- 
scribed in sacred Scripture. But we read, that " further explana- 
tions had their force," and " he perceived that there could be 
nothing irreligious in attempting to extend the bounds of human 
knowledge, and to ascertain the works of creation ;" and the 
great cardinal therefore gave the obscure navigator a " courteous 
and attentive hearing." Even Mr. M'Neile, with all his Scriptu- 
ral attainments, might find a wholesome lesson for instruction in 
the example of this great Roman Catholic prelate, when listening 
to the novel theories of the unknown Columbus. For, with one 
breath to say, that there may " be such a power in nature," and 



* Life of Columbus, vol. i., book 2. 



6 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

with another to describe men, who simply make use of that pow- 
er, as those who deal with " familiar spirits," does appear the 
most monstrous instance of inconsistent condemnation we ever 
met with : it is a begging the whole question with a vengeance ; 
it is a summary judgment without appeal ; it is a decision afTect- 
ing papal infallibility. And yet this competent juryman says, " I 
have seen nothing of it, nor do I think it right to tempt God by 
going to see it." 

After certain criticising observations, however, as to the scien- 
tific character of some Mesmeric proceedings, on which we will 
speak presently, he refers to the well-known " magnetic experi- 
ment" of the operation for a cancer in France, which a lady 
underwent without feeling any pain in its progress, and mentions 
it as " recorded in a report made by the Committee of the Royal 
Academy at Paris." And so determined is he to discover the 
evil spirit at work in the business, that he says — " If this be 
a falsehood, there is something almost supernatural in the fact, that 
we have a whole academy joining to tell the public this lie. If it 
be a truth, if the fact be so, then here, beyond all question, is 
something out of the range of nature — out of the present power of 
man, unless this is a new science." In this age of discoveries 
and marvels, surely a thinking mind need not deem it so very 
incredible, that some large addition to scientific knowledge, or 
even a " new science," as he calls it, should be brought to light. 
We have of late seen so many of the wonders of God's providence 
made manifest to our view — wonders, of whose existence our 
forefathers had not the shadow of a suspicion, that the Christian, 
while he contemplates them all with thankfulness and awe, might 
rather be expected to adopt the apostolic language, and say, " we 
know but in part," and we " see but through a glass darkly" 
" Lo !" (said the patient Job, while he was acknowledging the 
power of God to be infinite and unsearchable) — "lo, these are 
parts of his ways ; but how little a portion is heard of him 1 but 
the thunder of his power who can understand ?" (xxxvi. 14.) But, 
says Mr. M'Neile, on the contrary, " we know what sleep is, and 
we know what pain is !" Does he, indeed, " know" what sleep is ! 
Is he so accurate a physiologist that he is acquainted with all its 
varieties,* its appearances, its modifications and actions, according 



* Does Mr. M'Neile, for instance, who so well "knows what sleep is," 
know and understand the nature of somnambulism ? Can he explain its pe- 
culiarities or its causes ? Yet this is sleep under one of its variations; — but 
how strange, and with what singular diversity of effect ! Still it is not so un- 
common but that most persons, at some period of their lives, have known an 
example or two of it amongst their neighbors ; and we constantly meet with 
a paragraph in a newspaper, headed " Somnambulism," giving a tale of won- 
der for the curious. As Mr. Townshend says in his "Facts," " there are 
many who remember to have heard tell of some sleep-walker, who has been 
known to rise from his bed, and to display in slumber even more than his 
ordinary activity, balancing himself where the waking eye would sicken. 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 7 

to the changes and conditions of the human frame ? Does he too 
" know" what pain is ? Is he so deeply read in pathology that he 
is prepared to state unerringly its effect upon the body of man 
under every possible contingency ? Why, he himself says — 
" We do not know all the properties of matter certainly, and there 
may be some occult property in matter which these men have dis- 
covered, and which may have the effect, when applied to the 
human frame, of rendering it insensible to pain." Again, I say, 
this is the point at issue. Why may there not be such an " occult 
property in matter," the beneficent " gift of God" for the use of his 
creature man, without calling up a diabolical machinery to explain 
the difficulty ? In an admonition that he gives to the medical 
profession, he quotes Shakspeare, and begs respectfully to suggest 
to them, that there are " more things in heaven and earth than are 
dreamt of in their philosophy." They might, with a beautiful 
propriety, fling back upon him his own quotation, and request him 
to apply it to this very question. A Christian minister, however, 
would rather go to the inspired Volume, and say — " Who is this 
that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge. Gird up now 
thy loins like a man, for I will demand of thee, and answer thou 
me. Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth 1 

Declare, if thou hast understanding Have the gates of 

death been opened unto thee 1 or hast thou seen the doors of the 
shadow of death ? Hast thou perceived the breadth of the earth ? 
Declare, if thou knowest it all. Where is the way where light 
dwelleth? — and as for darkness, where is the place thereof? 
That thou shouldst take it to the bound thereof, and that thou 
shouldest know the paths to the house thereof?" (Job, xxxviii. 3. 
&c.) The Almighty Father, whose judgments are unsearchable, 



Who does not believe in the existence of such a state ? Doctors have 
descanted upon it with the precision of medical lore; metaphysicians have 
examined it as a curious feature of humanity; and the light and gay, regard- 
ing it as a mere matter of amusement, have flocked to see its mimicry in dra- 
matic representation, enhanced by all the charms of music, and the fascina- 
tions of genius." (P. 190.) Now, can Mr. M'Neile explain this state of 
natural somnambulism ? Can he doubt its occasional existence ? Has he 
studied its very singular phenomena ? And if he have studied them, will he 
deny that they bear a close, nay, the very closest resemblance to the pheno- 
mena of Mesmerism, — so much so, that they appear to rise from the same 
state of the human organism, — with this difference, that the former 
arises spontaneously, and that the latter is produced artificially by the mag- 
netic process ? 

The reader is referred to that most philosophical, yet strictly practical, 
work, the "Isis Revelata" of Mr. Colquhoun. The student, who wishes to 
investisate this very peculiar state, should also consult the "Traite du Som- 
nambulisme et des differentes Modifications qu'il presente," par A. Bertrand, 
Docteur de la Faculte de Medecine (!e Paris ; — a curious work, full of singu- 
lar and well-authenticated facts. See also the " Instruction Pratique" of 
Deleuze, cap. 5; and see also an account of a very striking case in the 
"Encyclopaedia Britannica," art. Sleep-Walker. 



8 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

and whose ways past finding out, hath hidden from the curious 
eyes of man the reasons and explanations of many of his gifts, 
and left us to grope ignorantly in the dark upon subjects the most 
familiar, and which are for ever present around us. But is this 
outside and superficial acquaintance with the works of nature 
to shut out from our remembrance the ever-present agency of the 
hand of God ? To condemn Mesmerism as an abomination of the 
devil, because little or nothing is yet known respecting it, is a line 
of argument, which, if pressed to its absurd conclusion, would 
ascribe half the wonders of creation to the care and contrivance of 
the spirit of evil. What, for instance, is our life — the bodily life 
of man ? In what does it consist ? What is its immediate and 
secondary cause ? What produces it — what terminates it — what 
gives it vitality and continuance ? I believe that the best physi- 
ologists are not prepared with any positive opinion on the matter. 
Some consider (and with great show of probability) Electricity to 
be analogous to the principle of life. Some consider Electricity 
to be the principle of life. We are aware that all nature abounds 
with electric matter — it is here and everywhere ; perchance, 
under God, in it we " live and move and have our being." We 
hear of Galvanism and Magnetic-electricity, or Electro -magnet- 
ism, and its efficacy, through machines, upon the human body, in 
relieving paralysis, and rheumatism, and different neuralgic disor- 
ders. Why might not Mesmerism, or Animal-magnetism, as it 
would appear to be appropriately called, be Electricity under 
a different character ?* Its residts are often the same, or rather 



* In our present imperfect knowledge of Mesmerism, and before its facts 
are generally admitted, it may be premature to adopt a theory : still I cannot 
help expressing an opinion that electricity, under some modification or other, 
is the immediate agent to which the Mesmeric action must be referred. The 
Germans are so satisfied of this fact, that they have given to Mesmerism the 
new and appropriate name of " Electro-Physiology." Kant, it is well known, 
in one of his earlier works, gave it as his opinion, that the causes of common 
magnetism, of electricity, of galvanism, of heat, &c, were all the product of 
one common principle, differently modified. To these, of course, might now 
be added the immediate cause of Mesmerism. And thus we should have one 
simple and single principle uniting animated and inanimate nature in one 
common and connected operation, a communi vinculo. There are several 
facts which show this strong analogy between Electricity and Mesmerism. 
Here is one : the electric fluid escapes most readily from a point. Dr. Lard- 
ner, in his treatise, introduces several illustrations to prove this fact. He 
says, " the increase of electrical density at the angular edge of a conductor 
produces still more augmented effects at its corners: .... this effect is 
still further increased if any part of a conductor have the form of a point." 
(Lardner's "Cabinet Cyc." Electricity, p. 329.) Now all mesmerisers 
have found by experience that the Mesmeric medium is most powerfully con- 
ducted by the tips of the fingers, analogously to Lardner's illustrations. In 
regard to the resemblance between animal magnetism and mineral magnet- 
ism, I have seen, over and over again, the hand and head of the sleeper 
following the hand of the mesmeriser, in the same way as the needle follows 
he loadstone. This subject is treated most ably in the Rev. Chauncy 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. y 

very similar. Why might not the electric fluid of the operator 
unite itself under various modifications with the electric fluid of 
the patient, and thus act with a curative influence upon the princi- 
ple of life within us ? It is Mr. M'Neile himself, who in this very 
sermon has referred to Electricity, and to the shock of the Gal- 
vanic battery ; and I would, therefore, just remind him, that in the 
study of this very subject there is yet much darkness ; that there 
is yet much to learn ; that we do not yet know how far its action 
is connected with the principle of life— and certainly we would 
defy him to prove that Mesmerism or Animal-magnetism is not an 
essential portion of the system. 

And this brings us to Mr. M'Neile's main argument, upon which 
he appears to plume himself most confidently, for he repeats it 
over and over again under various phases : — " I would wish (says 
he), that the professors of this science should state the laws of 

nature by the uniform action of which this thing is done Let 

them put forward the elements of the science in a scientific man- 
ner It belongs to philosophers, who are honest men, and who 

make any discovery of this kind, to state the uniform action 

We hear of these experiments — but hear nothing of a scientific 

statement of the laws Let us have the laws of the science 

I consider that no Christian person ought to go near any of these 
meetings, or hear any of these lectures, until a statement shall be 
made, grounded on a scientific assertion of the laws by which 
this thing is said to act." And so on passim to the end of the 
sermon. 

Now this argument, perseveringly as it is repeated, may be 
disposed of very easily. 

First, in regard to his demand, that " the laws of this science 
be stated" clearly and " in a scientific manner." To this there 
can be no objection. This is a just and legitimate challenge. 
Nay, we would say in his own words, " Science is open and 
above-board to all who will examine it — it courts examination ; 
let us not listen to it, so long as they keep it secret, and hide the 
nature of it." True, most true. But who keeps it a secret ? 
Who hides the nature of it ? The believers in Mesmerism are 
earnestly solicitous that the most open, public, free, and full exa- 
mination of the subject and its details should be constantly taking 
place. They invite its enemies and impugners to be present. 
They call upon the most prejudiced and the most partial to come 
with their prejudices and partialities, and witness facts. All they 
require, on the other hand, is an honest and candid conclusion out 
of an " honest and good heart." But are Mesmerists to be blamed 



Townshend's admirable work, "Facts in Mesmerism," in the chapter on the 
Mesmeric medium. See also Colquhoun's " Isis Revelata." See also a 
clever letter in No. li., p. 169, of "The People's Phrenological Journal," by 
Mr. F. S. Merryweather. 



10 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

for not stating the laws and principles of this system, when they 
do not know them themselves 1 Does Mr. M'Neile remember, 
that Mesmerism is yet but in its cradle 1 That, practically, it has 
been but little known except within a few short years ? In saying 
this, we are of course aware, that those who have looked farthest 
into the question, maintain that for centuries back, the Egyptians, 
and, perhaps the Chinese, have been acquainted with it ; and that, 
at intervals, it has been always more or. less known. To me the 
great wonder is, that an art within the reach of everybody, should 
have remained so long a secret ; however, the fact is, that publicly 
and philosophically the system has only been recently studied. 
At this very moment, numbers of cautious observant men are not- 
ing down facts as they arise, with a view to a safe and surer con- 
clusion. On the great Baconian system of induction, they are 
recording the experiments, the variations, the modifications, as 
they present themselves ; and when these shall be well establish- 
ed, they will come to the theory. Would Mr. M'Neile have the 
theory first declared, and thejacts collected afterwards to prove it ? 
This might be convenient, but hardly philosophical. Our opponent 
must be content to wait patiently a few years, before his demand 
of having the general laws of the science scientifically stated, can 
be properly complied with. Mesmerism is yet in its infancy. 
We cannot yet state " how a pass of the thumb,* or a movement 
of the fingers, acts on human flesh" — we cannot yet state " how it 
stops the circulation of the blood so as to resist the strengthfulness 
of the human frame" — we cannot yet state " how it prevents the 
delicate touch being felt in the cutaneous veins." But because 
we cannot yet give a scientific statement of the matter, are we to 
forbear its use as a remedial agent, or to ascribe these unknown 
properties to the " devices of the devil ?" In the cognate or ana- 
logous science of mineral magnetism, the peculiar cause of union 
between magnetic pyrites and iron had been for years altogether 
inexplicable — and perhaps, with all our knowledge of electricity, 
is not even yet satisfactorily explained. But was the mariner to 
deny himself the use of the compass in the stormy and trackless 
ocean, or to attribute the influence of the loadstone to the contriv- 
ance of Satan, because the " how" and the " why" and the 
" wherefore" had not been philosophically accounted for ? All he 
could say was, that the needle was guided by the finger of that 
Divine Being, whose ways were in the great deep, and whose 
footsteps are unknown. And all we can say is, that Mesmerism 
is the good " gift of God" for the use of his creature man, though 
its immediate and secondary causes are at present inexplicable — 
the good gift of that merciful and Almighty Father, who is " al- 
ways, everywhere, and all in all." 

And, secondly, as to his expectation that the laws of this sci- 

* See the Sermon, p. 152. 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 11 

ence should act "uniformly" "It is a part (says he) of ail 

nature's laws that they shall act uniformly If it be in nature, 

it will operate uniformly, and not capriciously. If it acts capri- 
ciously, then there is some mischievous agent at work." Of course 
in this implied charge of capriciousness, or want of uniformity, he 
refers to a variation of the symptoms or phenomena exhibited 
respectively by different patients. And in consequence of this 
variation, which must be admitted, his hearers are taught that the 
" sin of witchcraft" has ensnared the operators, and that some 
mocking, juggling fiend has taken possession of the patient. 
Now in regard to nature's laws, we at once agree that they are 
fixed, consistent, and unalterable. The physical world abhors 
"capriciousness." "Comets are regular," and nature "plain." 
It is for this reason that sciences are called " exact." To take 
an instance or two at random, we know that in the process of 
crystallization, certain bodies invariably assume certain specific 
forms ; and that in electro-magnetism, the mutual attraction or 
repulsion of electrified substances is directly proportional to the 
quantity of electricity conjointly in each of them. All these facts 
fall under the category of general laws. And does Mr. M'Neile 
imagine that the laws which govern Mesmerism are not equally 
fixed, consistent, and uniform, though phenomena vary when the 
accidents differ ? Does he imagine that a seeming " capricious- 
ness," or eccentricity, is not in reality a sure unalterable result of 
some unknown or inexplicable cause 1 We would lay it down as 
an unequivocal position, admitting of no exception, that where the 
accidents are the same, where the relative circumstances of the 
operator and the patient are precisely similar, the effects or phe- 
nomena would be as certain and regular as in any of those sciences 
termed exact. But the difficulty is to find this precise undeviating 
resemblance — this absence of all difference, and hence the appa- 
rent want of uniformity. In so sensitive, delicate, varying a frame 
as the human body, so subject to " skyey influences" — so affected 
by diet, clothing, lodging, and climate — so changed by a thousand 
minor incidents, could the same uniformity of action be expected 
as in inert matter or mechanical substance 1 Is it probable, that 
a patient, wasted by years of depletion and violent medicines, and 
with whom blisterings, and cuppings, and leechings, had gone 
their round, would exhibit the same symptoms as some robust and 
hearty sportsman, whose constitution had been tried by nothing 
of the same order ? Would not a diet of port wine or porter pro- 
duce a very different habit of body from that created by blue pill 
and Abernethy's biscuits ? We are taking certain extreme and 
opposite conditions ; but when we reflect that the circumstances 
of constitution, of custom, of food, of disease, admit of as many 
varieties as the human face divine ; that these varieties form the 
habit of body ; and that it is upon our bodies so modified, that 
Mesmerism acts, common sense must see that perfect uniformity 



12 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

of result is hardly probable. For instance, with one party, the 
mesmeric sleep is obtained at the first sitting ; with another, not 
for several days or weeks. One patient recognizes the hand of 
the operator, and cannot endure the touch even of a relative ; with 
another, to be touched by either is a thing indifferent. One only 
hears the voice of the operator ; another, without preference, an- 
swers any speaker. Nay, with the same patient the symptoms 
vary at various sittings. Still, in spite of all this, we say, that in 
main essential points, the resemblance or uniformity is very re- 
markable ; that the properties, as thus developed, have an evident 
affinity ; but if Mesmerisers are not able to lay down broad gene- 
ral rules, predictive of positive results, the fault is to be found in 
our imperfect acquaintance with a new study, in the difficulty of 
the science and the delicacy of the human frame, which is its 
subject. But is there anything strange in this ? Surely we might 
find something very analogous in our favorite illustration from 
natural philosophy. The nature of electricity, for instance, is not 
so perfectly known, that a law could be laid down by general 
reasoning, so as to foretell of a certainty the manner in which 
electrified bodies would act, in any position, in which they might 
be respectively placed. Do we, therefore, say that there is no 
uniformity ; or, as Mr. M'Neile might say, that there is no elec- 
tricity, or rather, that the whole is determined by the accidental 
caprices of Satan 1 No ; we answer that the distance of the 
positive and negative bodies being known, and no derangement 
arising from other or accidental causes, their uniformity of action 
is certain ; but we add, that as philosophers could not determine 
a just theory of all this from the physical principles of electricity, 
it was necessary to proceed by observation and comparison of 
phenomena before the law of variation could be fully established. 
And so it is in animal magnetism ; it will be by observation, by 
induction of various and numerous particulars, as exhibited in 
individuals of various constitutions and habits, that any approach 
to a consistent theory of action can be established. All this will 
require much time, and many and tedious experiments ; and my 
own opinion certainly is, that in the operation of this system on 
so sensitive a subject as the human frame, it will be almost im- 
possible to lay down specific and positive rules of its effects in all 
cases, and under every modification of temperament. 

And this, forsooth, is the foundation on which the weighty 
charge of Satanic agency is attempted to be built ! These the 
reasons on which Christian men are warned against going near 
Mesmeric meetings, or hearing any Mesmeric lectures ! I would 
not speak with harshness of any language or conduct that appeared 
to take its rise from motives of piety, however misdirected ; but 
where so mischievous a delusion has taken root, both justice and 
humanity require us to say, that never in the history of the human 
mind has an idle and miserable bugbear been created from more 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 13 

weak and worthless materials. If there be anything supernatural 
in the matter, it is that a man of Mr. M'Neile's acknowledged 
abilities could have given utterance to such puerilities ; and that 
when they were published, any parties could care to distribute 
them to their neighbors ; and that when read, any single mind 
could have been influenced by the perusal. I have felt sometimes 
ashamed at encountering this solemn trifling with earnest argu- 
ment — but even since this work has been commenced, I have met 
with several additional instances, in which a superstitious awe on 
the subject of Mesmerism, produced exclusively by this sermon, 
had seized the minds of the unhappy sufferers, and deterred them 
from employing a remedy peculiarly adapted to relieve them. It 
seems incredible — yet such were the facts ; truth is stranger than 
fiction ; and so I resumed my pen with an increased desire of 
doing some little good in abating the folly. I hoped to remind the 
admirers of Mr. M'Neiie, that powerful as he is, his power rather 
lies in the command of language than in the strength of argument 
— that he carries more sail than ballast ; and, certainly, that when 
he scattered around him such words as " witchcraft" and " necro- 
mancy," and called down, as it were, a fire from heaven on the 
heads of benevolent lecturers, the minister of St. Jude's had alto- 
gether forgotten " what spirit he was of." 



14 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 



CHAPTER II. 

Deplorable as is a rhapsody like that which the last chapter 
examined, there is nothing new in the state of feeling, of which it 
is but the index. There is a tendency in the human mind to refer 
everything that cannot be explained to the influence of Satan ; 
and though this idea of the supernatural has been refuted over and 
over again by subsequent discoveries, men still continue haunted 
with the same restless fears of the mysterious, and suppose the 
man of science to have signed a contract with the spirit of evil. 
But the one thing in Mesmerism that so especially disturbs the 
imagination of the timid, and produces so much of painful feeling, 
is the fact, that the immediate agent is invisible. It is this that 
throws so mystical a character over the subject. Superstition 
then comes to the aid of ignorance ; for when men cannot per- 
ceive all that exists, it is an easy way of solving the difficulty, by 
assuming that the whole transaction is beyond the boundary of na- 
ture. " If I could but see what causes all this," said a fair disci- 
ple of M'Neile's one day, " I should be easier." " The devil," 
observes the sermon, " works here unseen." These reasoners 
require a visible patent fluid to pass before their eyes to clear the 
practice of its sinfulness. In demanding this, they forget that 
there are other agents in nature which are outwardly impercepti- 
ble. For in accordance with this argument the evil spirit must 
be at work in the air we breathe, and in the wind by which our 
navies are wafted, for it is only through their effects that we dis- 
cern them ; — and the Christian passenger should refuse to embark 
on any vessel but a steamship ; and enter a solemn protest to the 
captain, if he presume to consult his compass as a guide to the 
destined haven. 

But the power that thus directs one of the extremities of the 
magnetic needle to the north, is not the only invisible influence in 
nature. " We may suspect," says an able French writer,* * that 
there are in the world several subtle fluids, and certain concealed 
properties, of which we have yet no notion ; and this is the rea- 
son why we find many phenomena inexplicable." But I cannot 
do better than give the words of a friend on this subject, in one of 
his powerfully written letters : — " How senseless (says he) is the 
objection of those who demand the explanation of a cause, as 
though there were one power of any description that ever was or 
ever can be explained. We register effects, and the course of 
these effects ; of the nature of a cause we know nothing. Gravi- 



* M. Virey, in w L'Art de perfectionner l'Homme." 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 15 

tation is perhaps of all powers the most universal and the best 
understood, but who can explain this ? We see the stone fall to 
the ground, and smoke rise up aloft, the storm rushes by, and the 
mountain torrent dashes over the precipice into the gulf below — 
but of the cause of all these various and apparently opposite 
effects, we know nothing — but that the power is simple and uni- 
form ; it is attraction, a sympathy between bodies, but which is 
no explanation. We cannot see it, for power is an action beyond 
the sphere of our perceptions ; we know it in the effect of matter on 
matter, and can trace the course of these effects through all material 
nature, but nothing more — we observe the conditions under which 
each effect is made manifest, but beyond which all is mystery ; 
of the cause we know nothing. It is the same with the phe- 
nomena of animal life which we perceive through the action of 
Mesmerism, the results of which are uniform under similar condi- 
tions, but vary with all the changes observable in the living body ; 
and so far as we are acquainted with these changes, can we cal- 
culate upon the result of Mesmeric action ; and it is the same with 
the effects which follow in the course of every other power by 
which the living body is influenced ; the laws of action are but 
the recognized material conditions under which any effects take 
place, and nothing more. Could we even perceive a medium of 
communication between acting bodies, as the wire which conveys 
electricity, or the air which communicates all the exquisite har- 
monies of sound to the sensitive nerve, or really witness a visible 
tangible fluid passing out from one body into another, the difficulty 
and the mystery would be the same ; for a fluid is not a power, 
nor a medium of communication a cause of the influence which it 
communicates ; these are but the different chains in the links of 
material appearances, which for convenience w*e call causation ; 
but which in truth explain nothing ; they are but means to an end, 
the filling up of the links in the chain. Gunpowder explodes by 
the near approach of flame, — but which the circumstance of the 
slightest damp will prevent. Now, who can the least explain 
these phenomena ; or tell us what is light, or heat, or the nature 
of this repulsive power, — which is the explosion. In all matters 
on which we are ignorant, we should suspend our judgment ; for 
experience has shown the folly of human wisdom in giving 
judgment without knowledge ; that knowledge which is power : 
for the ignorance of the indolent is not bliss : ' for though all 
knowledge,' says Lord Bacon, ' is valuable and connected, the 
knowledge of man to man is the most important, and ought to be 
the foundation of every system of education :' let us then with 
pure humility and an earnest spirit, seek to know ourselves, that 
we may be wise unto salvation, — praising God for all that he may 
reveal to us, and not in the pride of intellect without inquiry, pre- 
sumptuously reject the light which is from Heaven, and ascribe 
the ways of God to the agency of Satan." 



16 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

After all, this dread of the mysterious depends altogether upon 
the accident of our experience. Habit reconciles us to every- 
thing. What is as a miracle in one century, is a matter of course 
in another. And if our eyes be but accustomed to a particular 
result, though the cause may transcend our senses, it never enters 
into the thoughts of the large majority of men to ask whether the 
actual agent be unseen or visible. There is a curious story men- 
tioned in that amusing little work, " Six Months in the West 
Indies," which strikingly illustrates this remark. When a steamer 
was first started at Trinidad, Sir Ralph Woodford took a trip of 
pleasure in her through some of the Bocas into the main ocean. 
" When they were in the middle of the passage, a small privateer 
was seen making all sail for the shore of the island. Her course 
seemed unaccountable ; but what was their surprise when they 
observed that, on nearing the coast, she ran herself directly on 
shore, her crew at the same time leaping out over the side of the 
vessel, and scampering up the mountains !". This was so strange 
a sight that, to discover the cause, Sir Ralph went on board of the 
privateer, and found only one man there with a broken limb, in a 
posture of supplication. " He was pale as ashes, his teeth chatter- 
ed, and his hair stood on end, and ' Misericordia, Misericordia,' 
was his only reply." The explanation at last was, that " they 
saw a vessel steering without a single sail, directly in the teeth of 
the wind, current, and tide ; that they knew no ship could move 
in such a course by human means ; that they concluded it to be a 
supernatural appearance," — " and that when he himself heard Sir 
Ralph's footsteps, he verily and indeed believed that he was fallen 
into the hands of the evil spirit." Here, now, was a state of ter- 
ror, as in Mesmerism, the result of novelty alone. This Spaniard 
had been accustomed all his life to steer his little vessel through 
the aid of an unseen magnetic power, and by the invisible action 
of the wind ; and there was nothing wonderful to him in these 
ordinary properties of nature ; — but when a ship was propelled by 
the means of human machinery, by paddles, and boilers, and 
steam that were open to the eye, this unusual spectacle filled the 
poor sailors with a dread of approaching evil, — they " concluded 
it to be a supernatural appearance," — while the real object of mys- 
tery remained unheeded in the cabin through the simple effect of 
daily habit. 

The turn, however, which the fears of the superstitious so fre- 
quently take, is in an uneasiness on the subject of medical treat- 
ment, and at the application of some new and unwonted remedy. 
This fact can be corroborated by writers without number. It is 
not the disease that so much alarms, as the cure that subdues it. It is 
hence that the populace takes affright ; on this that preachers 
preach, and the learned bestow their wisdom. Old Burton, in his 
well-known work, the " Anatomy of Melancholy," has a whole 
chapter on the " rejection of unlawful cures" He gives us a cata- 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 17 

logue of writers, who affirm that cures are perfected by diabolical 
agency. " Many doubt, saith Nicholas Taurellus, whether the 
divell can cure such diseases he hath not made, and some flatly 
deny it, howsoever common experience confirms to our astonish- 
ment, that magicians can worke such feats, and that the divell 
without impediment can penetrate through all parts of our bodies, 
and cure such maladies by means to us unknown." " Nothing so 
familiar," adds Burton, " as to hear of such cures :" — " we 
see the effects only, but not the causes of them :" — " sorcerers are 
too common, who in every village will help almost all infirmities 
of body." " Many famous cures are daily done in this kind," he 
adds again, " and the divell is an expert physitianP And after a 
little further discussion of the question, he decides, that it is " bet- 
ter to die than be so cured.''''* 

Galen, who has been termed the Prince of Physicians, and 
whose name is as a proverb in the profession, was accused of sor- 
cery by his cotemporaries in reward for his unequalled success. 
" They turned against him even the credit of his cures, by the 
charge of having procured them through magical means.''''] Paracel- 
sus, his distinguished successor, was subject to the same imputation. 
A physician named Sennert, born at Breslaw in 1572, suspected 
that Paracelsus had tampered in the black art, and seriously 
asserts that extraordinary cures can only be performed by a com- 
pact with Satan. For he says, that ''the devil has a competent 
knowledge of physic, but as all his favors and promises are deceit- 
ful and destructive to soul and body, no benefit, but much evil was 
to be expected." He then admonishes " physicians rather to acqui- 
esce with resignation in the death of their patients, than preserve 
them by impious means. "J And the part that " enlightened " 
Europe has acted in regard to witchcraft is only too notorious ; 
thousands of unhappy wretches have suffered at the stake on this 
accusation, not always as a punishment for a presumed injury or 
to gratify revengeful feelings, but in consequence of cures effected 
by the simplest herbs and through the aid of nature, after repeated 
failures of the faculty. 

All this is melancholy enough ; and a sad answer to those who 
talk of the dignity of human nature. But bad as it is, something 
worse remains behind, viz., that the clergy^ of all persuasions 
have too generally led the van in these abominable persecutions. 



* Burton, "Anatomy Mel.," part ii.. p. 220, edit. 1632. 

t "Us tournerent meme contre lui l'eclat de certaines cures, en l'accusant 
deles obtenir par des moyens magiques." — Biographic Univer., art. "Galien." 

t " Quanquam vero negari non possit Diabolum rerum medicarum satis 
esse peritum." — Sennert, torn, i., p. 234. De Paracelso. — See Moore's 
" History of Small Pox, " p. 184. 

§ In making this statement, I seek not the worthless distinction of liberali- 
ty at the expense of my wiser and far superior brethren. But there are 
points on which a well-known proverb must be brought to memory. Truth, 
2 



18 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

Religion has been well termed, by one of our best living 
writers, " the medicine of the soul f — " it is," he says, " the de- 
signed and appropriate remedy for the evils of our nature ;" — but 
this medicine, unhappily, is not only easily polluted by the poison 
of superstition, but the dregs of human passion and human vanity 
too readily and too often mingle with the cup. The object, which 
the ministers of the Gospel have in view, is of so momentous a 
nature, of an importance so above and beyond every other consid- 
eration, that it may seem, to zealous minds, almost to justify the 
adoption of any means towards its attainment. If the soul be but 
saved, what matter the process, says the carnal reasoning of the 
sophist. But, happily, we are forbidden by the highest authority 
to " do evil that good may come :" and even the salvation of sin- 
ners is not to be accomplished by unrighteous ways. Still, this 
golden rule of Scripture is too frequently forgotten by the young 
and by the ardent. Anxious to carry on the great work that is 
before him, — eager to enlarge the number of his proselytes, our 
enthusiastic teacher is not always sufficiently careful as to the 
quality of the argument he adopts in his persuasions. A little 
"pious fraud" he trusts may be very excusable. Not content 
with denouncing in words of gravest censure the ungodly and the 
vicious, — not satisfied with "reasoning on righteousness, and 
temperance, and judgment to come," he must needs travel a little 
aside into the region of the doubtful and the imaginative. And if 
he be a man of talent as well as of energy, he soon perceives the 
result. He sees his congregation perplexed, alarmed, and anxious. 
He finds out that fatal secret, — fatal I mean to the happiness of 
others, — the pleasure of wielding power. He learns the power of 
the strong mind over the weak, — of the crafty over the credulous, 
• — of the fanatic leader over the bigoted follower. And this 
power once tasted, is far too delicious to be laid down : — it must 
now be maintained at any cost. One preacher promotes it by en- 
forcing the most puerile and superstitious ceremonies ; another by 
confounding things in themselves innocent and indifferent, and 
only blameable in their excess, with things positively sinful and 
forbidden in Scripture ; — a third thunders forth his anathemas 
against the philosophic, inquirer, and places on a level the man, 
who humbly searches into the wonders of Providence with one 
who is living without God in the world. And the more supple 
and complying that they find their people, the more exacting and 



especially gospel truth, ought to be dearer than factitious claims. And when 
religion is exposed to the scoffs of the unbeliever, through the injudicious ad- 
vocacy of its own supporters, it is necessary to show that the conduct which 
does the mischief is no part of the system, but the reprobated superaddings of 
a mistaken friend. This is essentially a scientific age ; and the more needful 
is it to be understood that there is no other hostility between religion and sci- 
ence than what arises out of the grossest ignorance. God's works and words 
6peak but the same language. 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 19 

progressive are they in their demands. This then is Priestcraft, 
be it exercised by what persuasion it may. It is that intolerable 
spiritual tyranny, that lording it over men's minds and consciences, 
which has done more injury to the pure evangelical faith, — which 
has more retarded the course of the everlasting Gospel, than all 
the writings of all the deists from Bolingbrook to Voltaire. It is 
in fact one of the very evils that have created deism. It belongs 
not in particular to one body of Christians more than to another, 
though the church of Rome has been taxed unjustly with an ex- 
clusive attachment to its use. Those, however, who look into the 
annals of the Church, and analyse the springs of human action, 
will find it a feeling all but universal. Pope and Presbyter, Wes- 
leyan and Baptist, have alike displayed it. The High Church 
movement at Oxford, and the Free Church Schism at Edinburgh, 
are equally emanations of the same principle, though the accidents 
of their two systems may be widely opposite. Our evangelical 
party have, in their own peculiar way, shown the warmest predi- 
lections for this power ; no men have more domineered over the 
weak and ignorant than have they ; — and the ministers of dissent- 
ing congregations, in spite of their loud professions to the con- 
trary, have, where the occasion has been offered them, been as 
little free as any from the same hateful practice. And thus have 
they all succeeded in spoiling the simplicity of the Gospel through 
" vain deceit after the rudiments of the world and not after Christ." 
and rendered its pure and blessed morality of none effect through 
their additions. But the strangest thing in the matter is the fond- 
ness of the people for wearing the yoke. Be the doctrine or dis- 
cipline what it may, the laity seem always ready to receive the 
most monstrous statements, and to uphold the pretensions of the 
most ambitious, if the teachers themselves appear but in earnest. 
Affection for priestcraft would almost seem an inherent principle 
in the human heart. Populus vult decipi : or as the Prophet said 
of old, " the people love to have it so, and the priests bear rule by 
these means." Moderation never was and never will be popular. 
Bitterness, bigotry, extreme and extravagant opinions, these are 
the things that are palatable with the vulgar. And hence it 
has been that in all ages of Christianity, those who by their edu- 
cation and position ought to have taken the lead in promoting the 
claims of science, were the very parties that sought a reputation 
for sanctity by heading the outcry against it : and hence it is, that 
in the case of Mesmerism, in other towns of England besides that 
of Liverpool, some of the clergy have succeeded in tightening the 
chains with which they have enthralled the weakest members of 
their flock, by second-hand denunciations on the wickedness of the 
system, and by mourning over some of the most virtuous practisers 
of the art as the hopeless victims of satanic cruelty ! * 



This is not asserted from a loose assumption. Those who disbelieve in 



20 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

These things are matter of history ; and it may be a useful 
though humbling lesson, to bring forward a few instances in proof. 
It may encourage a spirit of caution in those who teach ; it may 
check the leaning towards credulity in those who hear. And 
without alluding to the well-known examples in the study of 
astronomy, of geology, and other branches of natural philosophy, 
I shall confine myself to a few remarkable cases taken from the 
practice of medicine, as bearing an affinity to the curative power 
of the mesmerist. 

I begin, therefore, with witchcraft, for the charge of witchcraft, 
as was before stated, too commonly arose out of the medical suc- 
cess of the offender ; and on this point what a tale of horror has 
the conduct of the clergy to call up ! 

The persecutions for witchcraft did not commence in Europe 
till towards the close of the fifteenth century ; that is, when what 
are called the dark or middle ages were rapidly passing away. 
In 1484, at the time of our Richard the Third, Pope Innocent 
VIII., in his conclave of cardinals, denounced death to all who 
should be convicted of witchcraft. The succeeding popes, Alex- 
ander VI., and even Pope Leo X., the polished and enlightened 
Leo, lent their aid in this fearful persecution. About 1515, just 
before Luther commenced his career, 500 witches were executed 
in Geneva: 1000 were executed in the Diocese of Como. In 
Lorraine 900 were burnt. In France the multitude of executions 
is called "incredible." In Germany, after the publication of the 
Pope's bull, the number of victims stated is so portentous, as to 
lead to the hope that there must be some mistake in the calcula- 
tion ; and we are told that the clergy went about preaching what 
were called " Witch Sermons" and inspiring the people with a 
fanatic ardor in the pursuit.* 

In England the executions were frightfully numerous, especially 
at the period when the Presbyterian and Independent clergy were 
in the ascendant. During the puritanic supremacy of the famous 
Long Parliament, 3000 victims suffered. 



Mesmerism, and have not given attention to its claims, have no conception 
of the strong language used on the subject, for the sanction of which appeal 
is made to the authority of Mr. M'Neile. Not many months since, I was 
staying a few days in one of our midland counties, — and on spending an 
evening with a friend, part of the family remained absent. I afterwards 
discovered that they refused to make their appearance, as a mesmeriser was 
in the room, and the conversation might turn on the practice. A short time 
previously to this visit, the clergyman of their parish had collected the most 
obedient members of his congregation together, and, addressing them in awful 
language, entreated their prayers for some lost brethren and sisters. These 
lost brethren were some benevolent and Christian people who had been de- 
voting their days and nights to the relief of their suffering neighbors. And 
this in the 19th century ! 

* I have abridged the above facts and figures from Combe's admirable 
work on the Constitution of Man, and rely on his accuracy for their correct- 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 21 

But it was in Scotland, after the Reformation, and more espe- 
cially after the triumphant establishment of the Presbyterian Kirk, 
that some of the darkest scenes were enacted. The General 
Assembly passed an act for all ministers to take note of witches 
and charms, and over and over again pressed upon parliament a 
consideration of the subject. In following up the accusations, the 
clergy exhibited the most rancorous zeal, and were themselves 
often the parties who practised the worst cruelties. We may rail 
against Torquemada and his Dominicans, but it may be a question 
whether the Inquisition of Spain inflicted more real domestic 
misery than was endured under the galling bondage of John Knox 
and his platform. True, there was no auto-da-fe ; but, in its stead, 
there was a system of espionage, of informations and visitations, 
which carried dismay and unhappiness to every household hearth. 
In fact, the spiritual tyranny of the Kirk of Scotland was often 
intolerable. Documents show that no habits of private life were left 
untouched by its meddling jurisdiction. And those in the present 
day, who are abetting the recent Free Church measures, should 
well consider what they are bringing upon themselves ; for there 
can be little doubt, that the leaders of the secession, in spite of the 
apparently popular character of their proceedings, are aiming at a 
return to the old ecclesiastical domination, and to the prostration 
of the purses and persons of their people, under the iron rule of an 
ambitious presbytery. 

Some curious books have been lately published which throw a 
valuable light on the old conduct of the Kirk. I allude to the 
Miscellanies of the Spalding Club. They ought to be well studied 
by the present admirers of spiritual discipline. In the first volume, 
there is a document published, called " Trials for Witchcraft," 
which contain no less than fifty papers relating to different trials 
before the kirk sessions for that offence. A second volume is 
called " Extracts from the Presbytery Book of Strathbogie," in 
which we may read how the clergy took fearful cognizance of 
each action of private life, and accused and punished the " sus- 
pected" for their magical skill. A few samples may be instructive. 
There is a trial of poor Helen Fraser, who was convicted before 
the " presbeterie of Foverne," among other charges, for promising 
one " Johne Ramsay, who was sick of a consuming disease, to do 
quhat in hir lay for the recoverie of his health ;" but it was to be 
kept secret, for the " world was evil, and spake na gude of sic 
medicines." Janet Ingram had also sent for Helen to cure her. 

There is a narrative of a meeting held at the kirk of Caldstane, 
and a poor victim is brought forward, who was 'accused of calling 
on George Rychie's mother, and promising to take off his sick- 
ness. 

Mr. John Ross, the minister at Lumphanon, and the parson of 
Kincardine, O'Neil, send in documents to the sessions, accusing 
of witchcraft nine or ten persons. 



22 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

At Belhelvie, one Janet Ross is accused of witchcraft, and de- 
nies it, but she confesses to prescribing to a patient, sick of fever, 
an egg with a little aqua-vitae and pepper ; she had used the same 
for herself in her own disease. 

One George Seifright is summoned before the kirk, and rebuked 
for consulting about his wife's sickness, and bringing some poor 
woman to cure her. 

Issobel Malcolme is accused of charming and curing a child's 
sore eye. 

Isabel Haldone, of Perth, confesses, upon accusation, to having 
given drinks to cure bairns. 

Three poor women are executed in 1623 at Perth for doctoring ; 
and the kirk session called up and censured the parties who had 
sought cures at their hands. 

In short, as the editor says in the preface, these charges were 
" generally connected with cures wrought or attempted for some 
severe disease" The ignorant prosecutors could not explain what 
they saw : it was a paradox to them, how an old woman, by the 
administration of simples, could cure diseases which had resisted 
the wisdom of the professor ; and so, cutting the knot which they 
could not untie, they trumped up a charge of sorcery as a salvo 
and excuse for their own folly. 

Let us come to another instance. When, in 1649, the Jesuits 
imported into Europe the Peruvian bark, and for this act and for 
their philanthropic exertions in Paraguay made atonement to 
society for much of that conduct which has rendered their name 
a proverb, the most wonderful effects were produced in Rome by 
its use. GeofTroy, in his Materia Medica, states, that Cardinal 
de Lugo and his brethren distributed gratis a great quantity among 
the " religious," and the poor of the city. Agues and intermittent 
fevers were cured as if by enchantment. GeofTroy says that the 
cures were thought too rapid (trop prompt). And hence, as we 
learn elsewhere, not only did physicians interfere, but " ecclesi- 
astics prohibited sick persons from using it, alleging that it pos- 
sessed no virtue but what it derived from a compact made by the 
Indians with the Devil."* And thus this useful, this invaluable 
drug was, on its first introduction, treated as Mesmerism is now, 
and ascribed to the invention of the father of all evil. And of 
course the spiritual guides of those days thought, with old Burton, 
that it was " better for the patient to die," than be cured of his 
ague by such a remedy ! 

When, in 1718, inoculation for small-pox was adopted in this 
country, the greatest uproar was stirred up against it. Not only 
was the whole medical world opposed to it, but further, as Moore 
tells us in his amusing work on Inoculation, " some zealous 
churchmen, conceiving that it was repugnant to religion, thought 

* See Colquhoun's " Isis Revelata." 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 23 

-it their duty to interfere. * * * They wrote and preached that 
Inoculation was a daring attempt to interrupt the eternal decrees of 
Providence.'" (P. 237.) Lord WharnclifTe, in his life of Lady 
Wortley Montagu, says, that the " clergy descanted from their 
pulpits on its impiety." Oh ! if Mr. Paul and his Penny-Pulpit 
reporters had but been living in those days, what gems of reason- 
ing and rhetoric might have been preserved to us ! Fortunately 
a few Folia Sybillina are yet extant. A Mr. Massey preached in 
1722, in St. Andrew's Church, Holborn, that " all who infused the 
variolous ferment were hellish sorcerers, and that inoculation was 
the diabolical invention of Satan."* And one of the rectors of 
Canterbury, the Reverend Theodore de la Faye,f perhaps ex- 
ceeded this in his sermon, for he denounced with horror inocula- 
tion as the offspring of atheism, and drew a touching parallel be- 
tween the virtue of resignation to the Divine will and its practice. 
Similar minds see similar objects under a similar view. And it 
is hardly necessary to observe the strong resemblance that exists 
between the arguments delivered in Holborn and Canterbury at 
the beginning of the last century to the expressions so recently 
uttered in the pulpit of St. Jude's at Liverpool. 

When vaccination made its appearance, the same hubbub arose. 
Again was the medical profession up in arms ; again did the pul- 
pits resound with denunciations. Some of the clergy discovered 
vaccination to be antichrist. Moore, in his History of Vaccination, 
says, that " the opposition to vaccination was much more violent 
in England than in other countries." (P. 115.) He says again, 
11 the imaginations of many females were so much disturbed with 
tales of horror concerning it, that they could not even listen to any 
proofs of their falsehood." (P. 122.) The learned author of the 
" Principles and Practice of Medicine" says, that when vaccina- 
tion was introduced, " it Avas said, that it was taking the power 
out of God's hand ; that God gave us the small-pox, and that it was 
impious to interrupt it by the cow-pock. When I was a boy, I 
heard people say that it was an irreligious practice, and that it 
was taking the power out of God's hand, forgetting that it is merely 
using that power which God has given us. Sermons were preached 
against it ; and handbills were stuck about the streets. I recollect 
seeing it stated in a handbill, that a person who was inoculated 
for the cow-pock had horns growing in consequence of it." (P. 479.) 
These now are the annals of small-pox : and thus in a few years 
hence, when Mesmerism shall be firmly established, — and when 
it will be as much a matter of course for a neuralgic patient to 
apply to its influence for a cure, as it is now for a mother to have 
her infant vaccinated, the future historian will relate, among the 

* See a Sermon by the Rev. Mr. Massey, against the sinful practice of In- 
oculation. July 8th, 1722. 

t A Discourse against Inoculating; with a Parallel between the Scripture 
Notion of Divine Resignation and the Practice of Inoculation. 1751. 



24 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

curiosities of the subject, that two sermons were actually preached 
one Sunday in Liverpool, denouncing as impious and satanic, the 
practice of so simple, so common, and so natural an act as the 
exercise of the Mesmeric manipulations. 

Truly this satanic agency is a clever actor of all work ! Num- 
berless are the difficulties that are removed by it. " All the 
world's a stage ;" and one and the same interpretation " plays in 
its time many parts." 

For, first, satanic agency comes forward in the character of an 
old woman, curing the sore eyes of a boy by an infusion of dock- 
weed. 

Satanic agency next appears in the character of a Jesuit, 
scowling darkly around, and curing a tertian ague by the Peruvian 
cinchona. 

Satanic agency again appears in the character of Lady Wortley 
Montagu, importing inoculation from Turkey, and arresting the 
fearful ravages of small-pox ! 

Satanic agency again appears in the character of Doctor Jenner, 
consulting the College of Physicians, and saving myriads of infants 
by the process of vaccination ! 

And, lastly, satanic agency appears in the character of a modern 
Mesmeriser, healing, by his soothing power, some of the most 
distressing diseases, and expelling a whole train of neuralgic pains, 
which had defied the skill of the faculty ! 

And they, who utter these denunciations, think that they are 
doing God service ! 

Rather do they throw a serious discredit on religion. Rather 
do they inflict on it material disservice. They make the infidel 
and barren spectator laugh, and the judicious and thinking Chris- 
tian grieve. They overload the Gospel with a weight that does 
not belong to it. They affect the mind in the same way as the 
legends and false miracles of the church of Rome, " in leading 
captive" the silliest of women through a grovelling superstition, 
but disgusting men of sense by their absurdity, and converting the 
philosopher into half an infidel. Enjoined to believe all these 
statements, men end in believing none. In this respect, then, these 
pious frauds are a mistake, if we may so speak. They do not 
accomplish the object aimed at. They do not increase, but rather 
lessen, the amount of real Christianity. But they are not merely 
a mistake, — they are far worse, — they are positively immoral and 
sinful. In asserting this, we are far from singling out Mr. M'Neile 
as the object of our remarks. His views are but an indication of 
opinions that are afloat. He is but one out of many. We rather 
regret to see a man of his abilities lending the sanction of his 
name to such absurdities. He is a person of weight in the reli- 
gious world ; and therefore do we appeal to him, and ask, — if, in 
giving currency to these dogmata, he has well considered his 
responsibilities as a teacher ? To speak of the bounties of Provi- 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 25 

dence as the temptings of the evil one, — to treat a blessing as if 
it were a curse, — to condemn a benefit before it be examined, — 
as is the wont of the religious opponents of Mesmerism, — seems 
to me the conduct of a thoughtless, unthankful spirit. " If the 
Lord would make windows in heaven, might this thing be ?" was 
the speech of the unbelieving lord at the promised plenty to Sa- 
maria. (2 Kings, vii. 2.) " He doeth these wonders through 
Beelzebub, the chief of the devils," — was the answer of the har- 
dened Jews to the works of our Divine Master : and what are the 
marvels of Mesmerism, — but equally the works of God, — equally 
flowing from the same heavenly fount as the miracles of the blessed 
Jesus, — the one indeed effected immediately at His word, — the 
other through those secondary agents of which He is the first and 
only source. We therefore say, that it is our duty as Chris- 
tians to see the hand of God in the work, — that it is our duty 
to recognize so good, so merciful, so healing an influence, as a 
proof of the Almighty's care for his people. To do less than this 
argues a want of faith, and a lowering and an undervaluing of the 
Divine attributes. Our bodily frame may indeed be full of com- 
plicated and mysterious movements ; but what is that to faith 1 a 
mystery is no mystery to the eye of faith. The Psalmist could 
tell us that " we are fearfully and wonderfully made ;" the Psalm- 
ist could tell us that it is God " who hath fashioned us behind and 
before," — that it is " God w^ho laid his hand upon us," — and that 
" in his book all our members are written." To say, therefore, 
that " the flesh of man's body cannot be placed in a Mesmeric 
state, except by supernatural means," is to show a forgetfulness of 
God. " Be ye sure that the Lord He is God ; it is He that hath 
made us, and not we ourselves ;" — w T e are but clay in the hands of 
the potter. The Divine Creator forms one vessel to honor, and 
another to dishonor ; he divides severally to each of us our separate 
qualities, — to some he gives spiritual gifts, — to others physical, — 
to others a union of both : " He will have mercy on whom He will 
have mercy, and whom He will He hardeneth," — but whether 
they be gifts of grace, or gifts of nature, they all flow from Him, 
— for " of Him, and through Him, and to Him are all things," and 
" by Him do all things consist." 

Let not, then, the Christian misunderstand me. In thus oppos- 
ing the main tenets of this sermon, do I make void the doctrine of 
satanic influence ? Do I deny its truth ? God forbid ! yea, rather 
would I establish it. My own painful experience tells me, that 
in our religious warfare, " we wrestle not with flesh and blood, but 
with the unseen powers and principalities of hell, with spiritual 
wickedness in high places." Firmly do I believe, with Holy 
Scripture, that the " devil goeth about, like a roaring lion, seeking 
whom he may devour." Wherever is seduction or wickedness, 
there is Satan in the midst of us ; wherever is falsehood, impos- 
ture, and deceit, his kingdom reaches also ; wherever are un- 



26 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

just and railing accusations against the brethren — wherever are 
" lying wonders," and claims to a false and pretended power, his 
presence may be known ; and my daily prayer is, after the teach- 
ing of our blessed Master, to be delivered not only from evil, but 
also from " the Evil One." This is a creed of which all the wis- 
dom of this world will never make me ashamed ; I am only 
anxious to place this doctrine on a scriptural and legitimate foot- 
ing. With the apostolic Heber, I believe that " no slavish fears, 
no trifling superstition can follow from these views, when regulated 
by reason and by Scripture." And while, with that lamented 
Bishop, I think that the " notions which God's word has taught 
us to entertain of evil spirits, are sufficient to discredit the ordinary 
tales of witchcraft," with him also do I believe, that our tempters 
to sin are " mighty and numerous," and that the name of the great 
adversary is "Legion."* 

But if no satisfactory reason can, after all, be advanced in 
maintenance of this charge of satanic agency, and that the posi- 
tion be abandoned as forlorn, our fanatical opponents shift their 
ground, in the next place, to an uncharitable imputation against 
the men themselves. The slavery of mind must be secured at 
any cost ; and so the world is instructed, that the thing itself must 
be wrong, because the creed of its supporters is dangerous and 
unsound. The leading Mesmerists, they say, are deists, sceptics, 
materialists ; and what good fruit, it is demanded, can grow or be 
gathered from such a stock ? And who are they that thus join in 
the accusation against the persons and principles of the Mesmeric 
school ? Many, who in their daily habits of domestic life are 
visited by practitioners, entertaining and avowing the very same 
views. And to be consistent, therefore, they who make the charge 
should be careful that the rule applied to every other therapeutic 
novelty and invention in surgery. But granted, that their sweep- 
ing denunciation be correct, it were surely a new ordeal, where- 
with to test the merits of a medical discovery. For, after all, the 
real question is, how can such a charge affect the truth of the 
science itself? If all geologists were atheists, the fact would 
still remain, that the imbedment of certain fossils in certain strata 
does determine the relative succession of the latter, and throw 
considerable light on the structure of our globe. If all phrenolo- 
gists were materialists, the fact would still remain, that an habitual 
train of thought, of feeling, or of conduct, does act through the 
brain on the external conformation of the skull, and furnish a 
faithful manifestation of the moral character. And so if all Mes- 
merisers were deists, the fact would still remain, that that Supreme 
Being, who formed man out of the dust of the earth, and breathed 



* See Heber's Sermon on the Existence and Influence of Evil Spirits ; and 
a Sermon by Bishop Hurd on James iv. 7 : " Resist the devil, and he will flee 
from you." 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 27 

into his soul the breath of life, did impart in his organization a 
sympathetic susceptibility to magnetic action, and that through 
this process a curative influence may be evolved of the highest 
value to suffering humanity. And is it, then, the fact, that this 
healing, this merciful power is alone exercised or adopted by the 
scriptural unbeliever ? Shame, then, on Christians who can so 
neglect it ! Shame, then, on men who can thus arraign the boun- 
ties of Providence, and extract from the very gifts of creation the 
poisoned materials for their own uncharitable assumptions ! But 
that the disciples of Mesmer belong so exclusively to the school 
of materialism, if we must not call it a libel, is at least a strange 
exaggeration of facts. That there may be some among them, is 
probable ; for in what department of knowledge, where a consci- 
ousness of intellectual power leads men on, has not the light of 
revelation been too often overlooked and forgotten 1 Whether it 
be, as Bacon says in his Advancement of Learning, that " in the 
entrance of philosophy, when the second causes, which are next 
unto the senses, do ofTer themselves to the mind of man, if it dwell 
and stay there, it may induce some oblivion of the " Highest 
Cause ;" whether this be correct, I know not ; but it is a common 
remark, that they, who, by the habitual course of their studies, 
have been more accustomed than other men to look into the im- 
mediate causation of things, have been too generally found 
amongst the followers of Pyrrho and Epicurus ; but I have yet to 
learn, that the observation applies with greater force to the stu- 
dents of Mesmerism than to those of any other science. Many 
there are amongst them, whom no Christian community need 
blush to own ; many, who by their faith and practice adorn the 
doctrine they profess ; some, with whom I have walked to the 
house of God in company ; and all of them, with whom I am 
acquainted, are less deficient in that most excellent gift of charity, 
the very bond of peace and of all virtues, than those of their im- 
pugners, by whom the wanton cry is raised of infidelity and 
materialism. 

What, then, is the state of mind with which " wise, prudent, 
and Christian men should meet the present state of the question ?" 
I would not have them, from a disgust at the tendencies of this 
sermon, join the ranks of the infidel, and laugh to scorn the doc- 
trine of satanic agency, as the invention of men — holy Scripture 
teaches it ; experimental religion confirms it ; but I would have 
them be cautious not to confound the ways of Providence* with 
the works of the evil one ; I would have them remember " how 
little a part " of God's wonders are yet laid bare to his creatures ; 



* Since the above was written, I have met with a clever paper, full of 
curious matter, called " Witchcraft and Mesmerism," in the London Poly- 
technic Magazine, No. 2, by Dr. T. Stone. The facts therein stated arc 
very instructive. 



28 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

I would have them look into the subject with a devotional spirit, 
anxious for truth, not rashly condemning that of which they are 
ignorant, lest haply, in their presumption, " they be found to be 
fighting against God." " Christian men " need not fear to be 
present at scientific lectures or physiological experiments, if they 
go in a Christian spirit. Hard words are no argument. Accusa- 
tions of " morbid curiosity," and " foolish novelties," and "devilish 
devices," carry no proofs of their truth to the thinking pious be- 
liever. If he goes, he goes with prayer — he goes with the Bible, 
if not in his hand, yet in his heart ; he goes to study the book of 
God's works by the book of God's word ; he goes with the full 
remembrance that " no science can save a soul," no natural know- 
ledge bring us nearer to God. But if, on the other hand, it be 
sickness or bodily pain that hath entered into the Christian's 
dwelling, and that his knowledge of the healing properties of Mes- 
merism should lead him to make experiment of its power, what 
are the feelings with which he would commence a trial of this 
unknown and unseen remedy ? He would " walk by faith and 
not by sight." He would regard it as only one out of many thou- 
sand gifts, bountifully bestowed upon us in this life by a merciful 
Creator ; he would value it as a blessing sent to cheer and com- 
fort him, when other and more customary means were failing to 
relieve him. He would turn to its use with prayer, with humble 
hope, with pious confidence ; he would feel that the issue was yet 
with God, and the divine will would be his own. He would not, 
like the impious king recorded in Scripture, forget the Lord, and 
seek only physicians. No : the great Physician of the cross, the 
healer of our leprosies, bodily and spiritual, would, after all, be 
his main and only refuge. To Him would he look at morning, at 
noontide, and at the evening hour. Yea, he would feel that it was 
good to be afflicted, if his afflictions and their earthly remedies 
made him better acquainted with his own heart, and brought him 
to a closer and more abiding communion with his Saviour and his 
God! 

All, however, that I have been saying in the above pages, has 
been so much more happily expressed in the following charming 
lines by that gifted poetess, Miss Anna Savage, that my readers 
cannot but thank me for introducing them to their notice. 

ON HEARING MESMERISM CALLED IMPIOUS. 

Call not the gift unholy ; 'tis a fair — a precious thing, 

That God hath granted to our hands for gentlest minist'ring. 

Did Mercy ever stoop to bless with dark unearthly spell ? 

Could impious power whisper peace the soul's deep throes to quell I 

Would Evil seek to work but good, — to lull the burning brain, 

And linger in some scene of wo, beside the bed of pain ; 

To throw upon the o'erfraught heart the blessing of repose, — 

Untiring watch the eye of care in healing slumber close, — 

And as the agony of grief fell 'neath the Spirit's will, 

O'er the wild billows of despair breathe tenderly — Be still 1 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 2$ 

Speak gently of the new-born gift, restrain the scoff and sneer, 

And think how much we may not learn is yet around us here ; 

"What paths there are where Faith must lead, that Knowledge cannot share, 

Though still we tread the devious way, and feel that Truth is there. 

Say, is the world so full of joy, — hath each so fair a lot, 

That we should scorn one bounteous gift, and scorning, use it not, 

Because the finite thought of man grasps not its hidden source ? 

Do we reject the stream, because we cannot track its course ? 

Hath Nature, then, no mystic law we seek in vain to scan ? 

Can man, the master-piece of God, trace the unerring plan 

That places o'er the restless sea the bounds it cannot pass ; 

That gives the fragrance to the flower, the " glory to the grass ?" 

Oh ! Life with all its fitful gleams hath sorrow for its dower. 

And with the wrung heart dwell the pang and many a weary hour : 

Hail, then, with gladness what may soothe the aching brain to rest ; 

And call not impious that which brings a blessing and is blest. 

The gladden'd soul re-echoes praise where'er this power hath been 

And what in mercy God doth give, O " call not thou unclean !"* 



* " God hath showed me that I should not call any man common or m^ 
dean." Acts x. 28. 



30 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 



CHAPTER III. 

But all this train of argument appears childish in the extreme 
to a second class of opponents. It seems like fighting with the 
wind. A medical friend, who for his ability and various attain- 
ments in science stands by common consent among the heads of 
his profession, says in a letter, " It amuses me much to see two 
grave clergymen making a serious debate on the subject of Mes- 
merism." The editor of the Lancet says much the same thing : 
" We cannot but smile at each theologian for seriously attacking 
and seriously defending the practice." And a religious periodical 
has made a few observations on the subject, which require some 
little notice. 

The Christian Observer* says, that they agree neither with 
Mr. M'Neile nor with his opponent, for they believe Mes- 
merism to be nothing else than the result of credulity or impos- 
ture. But we will put the charge in their own language. " We 
believe that the work is strictly human, — being in part imposture 
for morbid vanity or sordid gain, and in part the irregular action of 
an excited imagination" &c. Dr. Elliotson was " duped by some 
artful patients, who pretended to respond to his magical control. 
We calmly say duped." He " exhibited his deluded or deluding 
patients, suffering or affecting to suffer" * * * * " In some in- 
stances the patients and exhibitors may be confederates ; in 
others they may deceive the exhibitor ; but that there is deception 
upon the part of one or of both, we make no question." Hard 
words these, — if not somewhat coarse and unbecoming ! It might 
have been expected that the editor of a religious publication would 
have known more of that evangelical virtue, which " believeth all 
things, and hopeth all things" favorably. " Charity never faileth." 
Charity always adopts the best interpretation. Such words as 
" dupe" and " imposture" are easily written, and save the writers 
unfortunately much laborious investigation. My original purpose 
was to treat of the religious aspect of Mesmerism, — or rather to 
show, that its practice was not so unhallowed as the timid Chris- 
tian might deem. But in the position in which I have been 
placed, — and with the facts in my possession of which I have 
been a witness, such a narrow view of the subject appears to be 
inconsistent. And when a periodical of such deserved reputation 
as the Christian Observer can thus encourage its readers in their 



* Christian Observer for September, 1843, in notice of * Mesmeiism, the 
Gift of God." 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 31 

error by trie most unjust aspersions ; when trie leaders of the medi- 
cal profession (for the larger part of the junior members are hap- 
pily an exception) can obstinately persevere in terming this valuable 
discovery a delusion and an absurdity ; I should be wanting in my 
duty towards God, if I did not thankfully announce that which I 
have experienced ; nay, I should be even wanting to my own 
character among my fellow-men, if I did not show that in thus ad- 
vocating Mesmerism, I had reasonable grounds for my conviction, 
and spoke but the words of truth and soberness. 

It may then be desirable to state that I was an unbeliever in 
Mesmerism : perhaps it would be more correct to say, that I 
scarcely thought on the subject. A few years back I went to the 
Mesmeric exhibitions of the Baron Dupotet in Wigmore Street, 
and returned from them disgusted and incredulous : and from con- 
versations that I subsequently held with medical men, I was led 
to resolve the whole appearances into " monotony," " imagina- 
tion," and " nervousness." All this is stated to show my previous 
state of mind. The change, then, that was wrought in me, — the 
change from scepticism or indifference to earnest conscientious 
conviction, was no sudden, hasty impulse, but the result of cau- 
tious observation, and slow and gradual in its growth. I was 
placed in such circumstances, that, in my own despite, I was com- 
pelled to be present and witness facts. I watched them, how- 
ever, with the most anxious jealousy. I trusted to my own eye- 
sight alone, and took nothing for granted. I have gone from case 
to case, and from one patient to another, and seen them all under 
different states of mind and body, and studied all the effects with 
the most unwearied diligence for months. And if plain common 
sense, untrammelled by the jargon of science, may be allowed to 
give an opinion, my conclusion from the whole is, that there is no 
one fact in nature more unquestionable, than that in certain condi- 
tions, hitherto unascertained, of the human body, one person is 
capable of producing a powerful action on the physical system of 
another, and that through some medium perfectly independent of 
the imagination of the recipient : and this position I propose to 
prove in the following statements. % 

The patient to whom I shall first refer, had been for many 
years in an anxious state of health. Palpitation of the heart, severe 
neuralgic pains, intense continuous headaches, had been a few of 
the more urgent symptoms ; and though she had enjoyed the bene- 
fits of the very first advice both in London and the country, and 
often with advantage, yet still the constitution had at length be- 
come so enfeebled as to be little equal to meet an additional shock 
upon the system. Let it be sufficient to state, that the worst symp- 
toms of her case were at length fearfully exasperated. The most 
agonizing pains succeeded. For seven long and tedious weeks, 
sleep, which is " often the last to come when wanted most," lite- 
rally came not at all. Opiates not only failed to ease, but even tend- 



32 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

ed to aggravate. Till at last, when a crisis was rapidly approach- 
ing ; when the hopes of the patient's family were almost gone ; — 
at that moment, when it was least expected, were their prayers 
heard ; — a change was happily obtained ; a new system of treat- 
ment was adopted ; — and from that hour they saw the hand of God 
leading them on to health and to hope ; they saw a gradual, steady 
progressive improvement setting in, attended by circumstances of 
relief, which no language can express. 

Mesmerism was that fresh treatment : but as a few facts will 
throw stronger light upon the action of this newly-discovered 
power, we will proceed to relate certain incidents in the case. 

First let it be stated that this was not a case of confidence, or 
where faith in a fresh remedy brings about a realization of its own 
wishes. The very opposite was the fact. The patient's disbe- 
lief in Mesmerism amounted even to dislike : and when the medi- 
cal friend, but too much alive to the necessity of a few minutes 
sleep after such a fearful duration of wakefulness, caught at the 
idea of the Mesmeric action, and suggested its adoption, the pro- 
position met with a peremptory repulse. And it was only through 
the firmness and intelligent explanations of the excellent friend 
that undertook the treatment, that this strong reluctance was at 
last overborne. 

At the first seance, which lasted an hour, small apparent effect 
was produced ; but on going to rest, the patient who had been in 
the habit of requiring the nightly aid of fomentations to lull the in- 
tolerable severity of her sufferings, lay perfectly still, and said 
that " the pain had been endurable." Sleep, indeed, did not visit 
the pillow : but much was thus far gained. 

At the few next sittings sleep was obtained, — deeper too on 
each occasion, — and the effect of which continued after the patient 
retired to bed. And though this sleep was very short and much 
disturbed, still there was sleep ; an effect, which for weeks " all 
the drowsy syrups of the world" had failed to procure. The pa- 
tient soon declared that she had passed a refreshing night. All 
this was very encouraging, and called forth many expressions of 
gratitude ; still nothing had hitherto occurred to convince me that 
the monotony of the passes was not the producing cause ; nothing, 
that is, of an extraordinary or unusual character ; sleep with a 
gradual mitigation of pain were the blessed results ; and we 
" thanked God and took courage," and only trusted that this sim- 
ple treatment would not lose its effect, as we went on. 

It was about the third or fourth evening, as I was sitting at a 
distant part of the room, silently watching the patient in her slum- 
bers, that my attention was suddenly arrested, by observing her 
hand following the hand of the Mesmeriser, as by the force of at- 
traction. Never shall I forget the feeling with which I started 
from my chair, ejaculating to myself, " there is then something in 
Mesmerism." A new light burst upon me. Here was a fact 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 33 

which no imagination could explain ; here was a case where no 
collusion was possible. The act was marked, clear, decisive. 
In what way, the unbeliever can account for this sympathetic 
movement ; or into what solution it may be tortured, I know not. 
Common sense simply replies, that here is a plain evident action, 
in which the eye could not be deceived. This effect, too, it may 
be as well to add, was not temporary, but was produced daily for 
weeks and weeks. The hand and the head invariably moved 
with the hand of the Mesmeriser ; and certainly in witnessing this 
magnetic action, we could not avoid adopting the conclusion, that 
the term "Animal Magnetism" was not so inappropriate. 

It is unnecessary to enter further into this case, though other 
phenomena might be mentioned, except to add, that the most es- 
sential benefits continued to be obtained ; and that although with 
a patient of such an impaired constitution, a complete restoration 
to health was not to be expected, the action of Mesmerism has 
never on any occasion been employed on her behalf (and this is 
said after the experience of twelve months) without producing a 
relief and salutary effect, such as medicine fails in any measure 
to accomplish. 

But my experience can give attestation to a very affecting case, 
some of the events of which occurred under my own roof. 

Anne Vials is the daughter of Samuel Vials, of the Abbey par- 
ish in St. Alban's, who formerly drove the mail cart from thence 
to Watford. For a short time this poor girl gained her livelihood 
by working in a silk factory ; from the scrofulous habit of her 
constitution she was not always equal to full employment ; but, in 
1837, when she was only sixteen years of age, she was compel- 
led to give up work altogether ; for her mother fell sick, with a 
long and pining illness, under which, after much suffering, she 
finally sank; and during which she was confi.ied to her bed, and 
required the constant presence of a nurse. Poor Anne, therefore, 
left her calling at the factory, took her place by her mother's 
couch, and was her unwearied attendant night and day. So feeble 
indeed was the patient, that she could scarcely be quitted for a 
moment ; and for a long year, therefore, did this anxious and af- 
fectionate child sit by her parent's bed the whole night through. 
When death at length released the sufferer, a fatal discovery was 
made. The mother's disease had taken strong hold of the daugh- 
ter, for the over-wrought exertions of a twelvemonth had now too 
clearly brought out the hereditary taint. Anne Vials in fact re- 
quired a nurse herself; for not only was the general state of her 
health broken down, but the left arm, which for three or four years 
had been giving her much pain and uneasiness, became now in so 
diseased a condition, as totally to deprive her of its use. She 
was placed under the care of several medical men in succession ; 
the best attendance in St. Alban's was provided for her ; but the 
arm every day grew more and more painful. Through the kind- 
3 



34 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

ness of some charitable friends, she was now admitted into differ- 
ent hospitals one after the other. She was first removed to He- 
mel Hempstead Infirmary, thence to St. Bartholomew's Hospital 
in London, where she remained nine months, thence to St. Tho- 
mas's in the Borough, and thence to Hemel Hempstead again, in 
none of which places did she obtain any effectual benefit. The 
state of her health at length became so serious, that to save her 
life, some decisive measures were necessary ; and she was taken 
up to London again to Guy's Hospital, where her arm was ampu- 
tated by Mr. Morgan, the 22d of March, 1841. 

At the end of three months, when the wound was healed, she 
returned back to St. Alban's. After she had been at home some 
little time, a violent convulsive action commenced in the stump. 
This movement grew rapidly worse and worse. In fact, the 
stump moved up and down, night and day, unceasingly, and much 
quicker, to use her own expression, than she herself could move 
the other arm. Her sufferings became intense, and her general 
health was affected in proportion. She was now removed back- 
wards and forwards, as before, to the different hospitals, but with- 
out any relief. At the infirmary in Hemel Hempstead, they 
actually strapped the arm down with the hope of lessening the 
movement ; but the confinement made it, if possible, worse, and 
they were compelled to unloose it. She was at length carried to 
St. George's Hospital ; here she remained three months ; her 
health gradually getting worse and worse, and the epileptic fits, 
from which she had been suffering for a twelvemonth, increasing 
in violence and duration ; when, with the only hope of saving her 
life, a proposition was mooted of taking the stump out of the 
socket. My readers may judge by this simple fact of the des- 
perate state to which this poor girl had now arrived ; for with her 
shattered health, it could hardly be expected that she should sur- 
vive even for a short time so serious an operation. 

Fortunately for poor Anne, she had several benevolent friends, 
who, knowing all the circumstances of her history, had watched 
the fearful progress of her sufferings from the first ; and by sub- 
scriptions and various little Christian kindnesses had done much 
towards lessening her load of sorrow : Mr. Basil Montagu, in 
particular, — that excellent man, whose long and useful life has 
been devoted to the benefit of his fellow-creatures, took the 
warmest interest in her fate ; — she often went to his house ; and 
there she received from Mrs. Montagu that sympathy and con- 
sideration which woman alone is able to bestow. One day the 
thought struck both these kind friends, that if anything could be 
of service to Anne in this extremity of misery, it might be Mes- 
merism. It was but the faintest hope, for they had but slight 
knowledge or belief of its power ; still they mentioned the case to 
their friend Mr. Atkinson, and suggested to him the idea of making 
a trial of what could be done. 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 35 

Mr. Atkinson is not a member of the medical profession, but 
has devoted himself to philosophy and science. His acquire- 
ments are of the very highest order. He is well known among the 
advocates of Phrenology and Mesmerism ; in the former science 
he has added much to our stock of knowledge ; and in Mesmerism 
he is eminently successful. Whether in relieving deeply-seated 
pain, in arresting disease, or in subduing morbid excitement, his 
power is equally strange and wondrous. He is so calm, so gen- 
tle, and yet so firm, that it is a perfect study to watch him in the 
management of a case. Hour after hour have I seen him, with 
the most unwearied patience, devoting the whole energies of his 
powerful mind to the amelioration of suffering, watching the vari- 
ous symptoms as they arose, and undisturbed by any change that 
might occur. Never were philosophy and humanity more beauti- 
fully united. And in the instance before us, those who have the 
happiness of being ranked among his friends, require not to be 
told his answer to Mr. Montagu's suggestion. In spite of the 
feeling against Mesmerism, and the almost hopeless state of the 
patient, he at once, on his own responsibility, undertook the case ; 
and seeing that it would require for months the most unremitting 
attention, he procured a nurse from St. George's Hospital, and 
had the poor girl removed to his own house. 

It was in May, 1842, about fourteen months after the amputa- 
tion, that Anne Vials quitted the hospital to make trial of Mesmer- 
ism ; and this is Mr. Atkinson's description of the state in which 
he found her. " She had sometimes three or four fits in a day, 
of a most violent nature, which continued for more than an hour ; 
the stump moved up and down without cessation, not a merely 
nervous twitching, but violently up and down ; she suffered con- 
tinuous excruciating pain in the head and back, and at the end of 
the stump, too, the pain was most excruciating ; she had pain, 
too, in all her limbs and joints, particularly in the elbow of the 
remaining arm, just as she had before amputation in the other. 
Masses of sores were constantly breaking out in different parts of 
the body ; palpitations at the heart, pains in the chest, suspensions 
of the functions of nature, and a spitting of large quantities of 
blood accompanied by solid matter, were some of the other symp- 
toms." In short, a more terrible complication of evils have sel- 
dom been united in one sufferer. 

I shall leave it to Mr. Atkinson at some future time to give to 
the public the interesting details of his success. Let it be suffi- 
cient to state, that the process was most painfully laborious, and 
occupying a large portion of his time, and that she remained in 
his house more than twelve months. At the first few sittings the 
epileptic fits were brought on, as if by the Mesmeric effect, but 
this prevented their recurrence in her ordinary state. At the 
fourth or fifth stance, the deep sleep or trance was superinduced, 
when the action of the stump suddenly stopped, and from that 



36 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

moment it never moved in that way again ; the fits, too, ceased ; 
the pains in the back of her head were almost immediately 
relieved ; and a gradual improvement in her general health set in. 
Upon the wonderful results of the Mesmeric treatment in this 
case, I shall make little comment ; my readers can think for 
themselves ; they will see here a poor girl, carried to and fro 
from hospital to hospital, enduring the most exquisite torture, and 
her life placed in such a state of jeopardy, that the only hope of 
preserving it was recourse to a second and horrible operation. 
The arm was to be taken out of the socket ! an effectual mode, in 
truth, for a prevention of its movement ! But from this operation 
was she spared by the action of Mesmerism ; and by its continued 
and regular application was a relapse prevented, and an improvement 
in her health obtained. "Who does not see the goodness of Provi- 
dence in vouchsafing such an agent ? Who can deny that Mesmer- 
ism to her was the precious gift of God ? The facts of her case, of 
her sufferings, of the amputation, of the movement of the stump, 
and of the other attendant evils, are known to numbers, to medical 
men in St. Alban's, and to the surgeons and nurses at the hospi- 
tals ; and it is also known, that all the remedies suggested for her 
benefit were fruitless ; the best surgical advice was of no avail ; 
but the fifth day after the application of Mesmerism, the stump 
ceased to move, and the other fearful symptoms of the case began 
to disappear ! 

But these are not all the marvels that accompanied the treat- 
ment. With the improvement of her health the most beautiful 
phenomena step by step developed themselves ; so beautiful, in- 
deed, as to attract the admiration of a large number of inquiring 
spectators, who came to watch and study the case. She became 
what is called an ecstatic dreamer. Her nervous system had 
fallen into so peculiar and extremely excited a state, from the 
effects of this long and painful disease, that the Mesmeric action 
brought out an exaltation, and a great spiritual activity of the 
higher organs of the brain. And all these effects appeared spon- 
taneously and unlocked for. Not only did she become a som- 
nambulist, t. e., not only were the common results of the sleep- 
waking state produced, but an ecstacy — a spirituality — a rapt de- 
votional feeling, such as appeared to draw a veil over the scenes 
of this lower world, regularly came on. To make myself under- 
stood, I will describe the effects as they occurred on my first visit. 
A few minutes sufficed to throw her into a trance by the simple 
application of the hand held over the head without contact. First, 
would there come a slight nervous action of the stump, which was 
suddenly arrested ; a peculiar movement of the eyelids followed, 
the eyes closed, and she fell back in a deep stupor. From this 
state she could not be aroused by any application whatsoever ; 
she appeared insensible to pain, and to the action of ammonia, or 
of lucifer matches burning under her nose. After the lapse of 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 37 

some minutes, she began to move uneasily, when on being 
addressed by her Mesmeriser, she answered, and sat up in a 
sort of sleep-waking state, conversing freely, though unaware of 
the presence of strangers. Suddenly she fell back again into the 
stupor. In this she remained a short time ; when, slowly rising 
from the recumbent position, and gradually lifting up her arm, and 
pointing as it were to heaven, she opened her eyes, looking up- 
wards with the most intense expression of adoration. The effect 
was truly sublime. It approached the character of what we may 
conceive of the devotional rapture of the seraph. Prayer, venera- 
tion, — an admiration of the unseen world, — a contemplation of the 
divine and the celestial, seemed to absorb every faculty of her 
soul. Her features, which in her natural state are most homely, 
were lighted up with a spirituality almost angelic. Though she 
is nothing but an ignorant factory girl, and accustomed to the 
most menial occupations, her gestures in this state were beautiful 
in the extreme. In short, so striking, — so extraordinary was the 
whole appearance of this poor one-armed girl in her dream, — such 
a combination was it of the graceful and of the sublime, that even 
a Siddons might have made her attitudes a study for the Drama, 
and Raphael himself not disdained to borrow many a hint for the 
highest flights of his pencil. Domenichino's Sybille in the 
Palazza Borghese at Rome may give some idea of the elevated 
beauty of her devotions. In fact, I cannot describe the effect 
better than by adding, that one of the spectators, whose name on 
matters of taste is of the very highest authority, after witnessing 
the scene, walked from the house down several streets, preserv- 
ing the most profound silence ; and upon his companion at length 
inquiring of what he was thinking — " Thinking," he answered, " of 
what could I be thinking, than of what grovelling creatures we 
are, while that poor girl seemed a being of another world !" 

Of certain important conclusions, to which this case gives con- 
firmation, I shall speak by and by : at present my readers may 
doubt how far two or three visits to Mr. Atkinson's house entitle 
me to the character of a competent witness as to the reality of 
what I saw ; I shall proceed, therefore, to describe some future 
circumstances in this history, in which I myself took part. 

After a patience, a kindness, an expense, and a labor of no small 
duration, and such as few men would be willing to bestow, Mr. 
Atkinson brought this suffering girl to a state of comparative 
health and comfort ; all the formidable symptoms had completely 
disappeared ; the nervous movement of the arm was cured ; and 
there only remained at times a good deal of pain at the end of the 
stump, the effect probably of something that took place during the 
amputation. Anne Vials, therefore, returned home to her native 
town ; and here we might have lost sight of her altogether. It 
so happened, however, that I passed last summer in Hertford- 
shire. And so vivid was the impression that the touching scene 



38 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

I had witnessed left upon my mind, that in one of our earliest 
drives into St. Alban's we determined to find out onr ecstatic 
dreamer. What, however, were our feelings on being directed to 
her dwelling ! When last we had seen poor Anne, — she was the 
observed of all observers ; — surrounded by the scientific and the 
curious, there was she secure from want and toil ; and, with all 
the freshness of restored health, in daily communion with the 
seraphic beings of her ideal world ! What a contrast met our 
eyes ! We found her in a miserable lodging in a back lane, with 
all the usual accompaniments of poverty. Distress was marked 
on her. countenance. She was neatly and cleanly dressed ; but 
everything else looked bare and miserable. Toil had done its 
usual work. A few weeks' necessary employment in seeking her 
daily food had brought back some old and forgotten symptoms. 
The stump was causing her great suffering, particularly at the 
extremity ; the right arm was again beginning to be painful above 
the elbow ; her health was giving way ; and the expression of 
her features was indicative either of bodily or mental anxiety. 
For her father had lost his situation and was unable to contribute 
to her support ; her Union, which piques itself upon the strictness 
of its rules, refused any out-door relief ; and desirous of doing all 
that she could, and of keeping out of the workhouse, she strained 
her powers of exertion beyond what nature would allow. With 
but one arm, her choice of employment was limited ; and so she 
carried about the town a basket with goods for sale, the weight of 
which pressed too heavily on her nerves, and was bringing back 
her pains in the diseased parts. Had it not been for the assist- 
ance of some charitable friends, her case would have been pitiable 
in the extreme. We took her at once to the house I was occupy- 
ing ; for I was determined to try how far Mesmerism, with my 
inferior powers and experience, would be able to check the relapse 
with which she was threatened. My pleasure, then, was great 
on perceiving all the usual phenomena successively presenting 
themselves. There was the fluttering of the eyelids, the stupor, 
the insensibility to pain, the strange and fanciful colloquy, the 
manifestations of the phrenological organism, and, lastly, the 
ecstatic dream, with all its varying appearances, — the rapture, the 
prayer, the uplifted eye, the extended arm, the bended knee, and 
all the usual signs of the profoundest adoration. The difference 
that existed between the effects produced by Mr. rAtkinson and 
myself was this, that with him the dream was of a far more 
elevated and beatific character ; with myself the cerebral re- 
sponses to the touch were more pronounced and striking. How- 
ever, the main thing to be noticed is, that the health of the patient 
improved under our management ; of course her freedom from 
daily toil was of no slight assistance ; still she was benefited by 
her Mesmeric sleep ; the pains in the head were removed, and 
those in the stump greatly lessened, and a countenance of health 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 39 

and serenity reappeared. She stayed with us, backwards and 
forwards, several weeks : we had the best opportunity of judging 
her character ; and we found her an honest, well-conducted, right- 
principled girl ; and this opinion was confirmed by many in the neigh- 
borhood who had known her long. But we did more than this: — 
we determined to sift the case to the bottom ; we determined to 
find out how much of truth there was in these startling phenomena. 
Undeniable as was the benefit to her bodily health by the action 
of Mesmerism, there were many who thought that the subsequent 
manifestations of the dream were all assumed from some inter- 
ested motive ; and I will not conceal that some such suspicions 
did occasionally lurk in my own mind. But, as Bacon says in 
one of his undying Essays, " There is nothing makes a man sus- 
pect much, more than to know little ; and, therefore, men should 
remedy suspicion by procuring to know more, and not to keep 
their suspicions in smother." We resolved, therefore, to probe 
the matter thoroughly. We had every facility for the work ; 
leisure and retirement were not wanting ; and we had no interest, 
moreover, in the decision one way or other. Fortunately our cir- 
cle had been joined by a friend, whose varied talents and acquire- 
ments rendered him a competent judge on any philosophic ques- 
tion. Mr. Mitford's* inquiring mind was determined to be satis- 
fied as to the truth of our so-called science. He assisted us, there- 
fore, daily at each seance. In fact, he often took the principal 
part. In conjunction with my wife and myself, he tested the case 
in every possible way. Experiments of the most opposite kinds 
were adopted by him. It would be tedious to relate them ; it is 
enough to say, that we repeated them over and over again, and 
were satisfied at the conclusion as to the only inference to be 
drawn. And what, then, was that result? That not a shadow 
of a suspicion even for a moment could remain as to the reality 
and truthfulness of what we saw ; that the poor girl was an 
honest, unpretending person ; that the phenomena produced were 
far beyond her powers of acting either to assume or to sustain ; 
that the force of imagination could not explain them ; that the 
supposition of hysteria or nervousness was only solving one diffi- 
culty by another ; and that, in short, the whole scene, strange and 
pregnant with mighty truths as it appeared, was nothing else than 
the simple effect of this newly-discovered agent, the effect of the 
nervous system of one human being acting on another. It is im- 
possible to say how strong was the satisfaction we all felt at the 
close of our inquiries into this most curious case. It was an 
opportunity for searching into truth that never might be offered to 

* My accomplished friend, the Rev. John Mitford, the learned editor of 
Gray, and the author of many delightful and popular works, is the last man 
to sacrifice his judgment to the love iif a new and startling theory. Let it be 
sufficient to say, that, originally a sceptic in Mesmerism, he is now a firm 
believer. 



40 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

us a second time. And when the morning of our departure from 
the neighborhood had arrived, and poor Anne with tears in her 
eyes attended us to the carriage, we took leave of her with feel- 
ings of real regret, and drove away with many an anxious fore- 
boding about her future fate.* 

But there is an interesting trait connected with the above story 
that must not be forgotten. It was in one of his annual pilgrim- 
ages to the shrine of the great father of inductive philosophy, that 
Mr. Basil Montagu, the admirer and follower of Bacon — he who 
had written his life and published his works — first became 
acquainted with this suffering creature. Often would he ramble 
towards old St. Michael's Church, and visit the grave of that 
greatest of England's chancellors ; often would he traverse the 
ruins at Garhambury, and press the hallowed soil that Bacon 
loved to tread. And never did he return from these his beloved 
haunts, but, Antaeus-like, he rose from the contact of that kindred 
earth, with a freshened impulse and ardor for the discovery of 
truth. The spirit of the master breathed on the disciple. The 
very genius of the place followed him to his dwelling. Of Mes- 
merism he knew but little : but if Mesmerism were true, it could 
only be established by the inductions of inquiry. Truth by expe- 
riment — truth by careful and untiring observation — truth, however 
vilified and ridiculed by the sciolist, was always to be searched 
for ; and when could this truth be obtained with greater propriety 
than in the case of an unhappy sufferer, who dwelt within the 
precincts of that very ground, sacred to the memory of that vast 
genius, whose mind had been so impressed with the importance 

* It ought to he mentioned in explanation of the circumstances of distress 
under which we found Anne Vials, that her kind friends in London had gone 
to great expense on her behalf, as she was supported for some time through 
the benevolence of Mr. and Mrs. Basil Montagu, and subsequently by Mr. 
Atkinson, during her residence under his roof; and when she returned to St. 
Alban's, they entertained the hope that her former charitable neighbors in 
that place would not omit to renew their benevolent aid. But such was the 
strong opinion maintained by several in regard to the Satanic character of 
Mesmerism, that it produced an adverse feeling against the poor helpless 
girl. Others, too, disbelieving the powers of Mesmerism, were disposed to 
consider her in some measure an impostor, and assumed that her heallh, 
which had defied the skill of the ablest practitioners, had come round of itself. 
It was, therefore, to postpone to as late a day as possible her final reception 
into the workhouse, that the poor girl economised the alms which she had 
brought with her from London in as chary a way as possible. Among the 
friends, however, who remained firm to her, there is one who ought especially 
to be named. Mrs. Wilkins, of the Verulam Arms Hotel, has acted towaids 
her with all the kindness of the good Samaritan. When staying in that 
neighborhood, too, Mr. Mitford kindly set on foot a little subscription, which 
vas most charitably responded to by some of the most influential families in 
the vicinity. I lately had a letter from Mrs. Wilkins (Feb. 22d, 1844), say- 
ing that the poor girl had been very ill again, but was now something better. 

It ought to be added, however, that though she has often been subject to 
attacks of illness, and to great pain in her arm, the convulsive movement of 
the slump, and the violent epileptic fits, huve never returned. 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 41 

of inquiring into the nature of the living body. For Bacon him- 
self, considering the knowledge of man to man the most important 
of all knowledge, had written on " experiments touching the emis- 
sion of immateriate virtues from the minds and spirits of men, 
either by affections or by imaginations, or by other impressions." 
He seems to have anticipated somewhat of the Mesmeric dis- 
covery, when he says that it " certainly is agreeable to reason 
that there are some light effluxions from spirit to spirit, when men 
are in presence one with another, as well as from body to body" 
He says that there is " a sympathy of individuals, so that there 
should remain a transmission of virtue from the one to the other." 
" But," he adds, " we have set it down as a law to ourselves to 
examine things to the bottom, and not to receive upon credit, or 
reject upon improbabilities, until there hath passed a due examina- 
tion." " Much," he says again, " will be left to experience and 
probation, whereunto indications cannot fully reach."* And it is 
in accordance with these great principles of inductive philosophy 
by experiment, that the venerable Basil Montagu, whilst almost 
wholly ignorant of the power of Mesmerism, yet finding that the 
skill of the first medical men in Loudon could avail nothing, 
thought that something might possibly be effected in the case of 
this poor sufferer, and, at all events, that here was a fit subject for 
a trial. And how glorious was the result ! what a triumph in 
science ! What a forcible proof of the reality of the power of this 
newly-discovered principle in the nature of man ! And what 
virtuous mind shall not rejoice at such a discovery, or deny that 
Mesmerism is indeed the gift of an all-wise and merciful God ! 

But I was also witness to a third case of Mesmerism, that 
occurred in my house last summer, which is interesting, not only 
from the benefits that resulted to the party mesmerised, but also 
from the corroboration which it gives to the truth of a similar 
event, of which the newspapers have been lately full. I allude 
to the case of the sleeping boy at Deptford. James Cooke was 
there thrown into the mesmeric trance by his master's son, and 
remained in that state for so long a period, that one party collected 
round the house with fearful apprehensions at. the dangerous con- 
dition into which he was plunged ; while a surgeon, from his 
apparent ignorance of physiology, deems the thing impossible, and 
writes a letter to the newspapers, pronouncing the whole a delu- 
sion. The sleep, as we have since learnt from the best authority, 
was neither assumed nor alarming ; and I am able to confirm the 
probability of the narrative, from the almost similar circumstances 
that took place in my own household. A maid-servant of the age 
of eighteen, of a pallid complexion, and in delicate health, came 
to live with us in Hertfordshire, her mother being in hopes that 
country air might have a bracing effect on her constitution. But 

* See Bacon's "Natural History," Century X. 



42 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

no such, result was produced : she remained weak and languid, 
and unequal to any exertion. One day Anne Vials mesmerised 
her ; and the next morning she expressed herself as much bene- 
fited by its effect. This induced a friend, who was staying with 
us, to repeat the experiment, and the result was so deep and pro- 
longed a sleep, that his endeavors to awaken her were for many 
hours unsuccessful ; we tried every plan we had seen adopted in 
similar cases, and referred to different works on the subject, but 
in vain. This state of somnambulism lasted for nineteen hours, at 
the end of which she awoke and was perfectly ignorant of all that 
occurred during her sleep. It may be as well to state for the 
benefit of the sceptic, that this young girl was artless and inexpe- 
rienced, and perfectly unequal to acting any part, or to resist the 
various plans pursued by ourselves and her fellow-servants to 
rouse her from her slumbers. It was an interesting sight, with 
which some anxiety was mingled, owing to her delicate constitu- 
tion. But I have the satisfaction of stating, that within a few 
days afterwards the beneficial results surpassed all our expecta- 
tions ; the bloom of health returned to her cheeks, the blood 
seemed to be circulating through her veins, her whole system was 
renovated, and she became lively and active. In short, so great was 
the alteration in her appearance, that on her return to London a 
few weeks afterwards, her mother, surprised and delighted, ex- 
claimed, " Matilda, you are changed, indeed — I should not have 
known you !" 

f . Here then are three remarkable cases. And what is the reply 
of the unbeliever 1 That the writer is a prejudiced, incredible 
witness ? For I pass by as unworthy of notice the common charge 
of deception and " morbid vanity,' 1 with simply demanding, what 
reason I could have for upholding Mesmerism except conviction 
of its truth ? But I am an incompetent testimony, — it is meant ; I 
have received no diploma from the College of Surgeons, and 
know nothing of the action of hysteria and nervousness. There 
is a homely proverb which will admirably apply to these reason- 
ers, — " An ounce of mother-wit is worth a pound of clergy." A 
little practical common sense is all that is necessary : and it is 
possible for an educated man, even though he may not have re- 
ceived a medical degree, to form a legitimate opinion of the ap- 
pearances of Mesmerism, after a daily observation of several 
months. But setting all this aside, and for the sake of argument 
admitting myself to be in error and the above a delusion, are these 
three cases isolated ones ? Is my experience a rare instance ? 
Is nothing else producible ? At this moment, hundreds and hun- 
dreds of cases, out of England alone, can be brought forward. A 
mass of evidence quite astonishing is in my possession. Cures 
and relief effected in an infinite diversity of diseases can be 
named. Not that it is pretended tl at Mesmerism is a universal 
specific. There are many disorders, which it does not seem to 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 43 

touch. There are many patients to whom it does not seem to be 
of use. Still a host of cases can be produced, in which a ser- 
vice, beyond all expression valuable, has been wrought ; in which 
pain of the most intense agony has been removed ; in which long 
chronic diseases have been subdued ; in which sudden attacks have 
been mastered ; cases, too, in which medical men have been at 
fault, or which they had pronounced incurable and hopeless. In 
the metropolis alone a considerable number of Mesmerisers can 
be named. There is hardly a county in England, where it is not 
now practised. From York to the Isle of Wight, from Dover to 
Plymouth, there can be produced a chain of evidence and a list of 
cures. Our mesmerisers are not ignorant practitioners ; not hot- 
headed crack-brained enthusiasts, but men whose standing in so- 
ciety is a guarantee for the correctness of their information, tem- 
perate, slow-judging, careful thinkers, and as little likely to be led 
astray by a false light as their opponents themselves. Clergymen, 
military men, barristers, physicians, surgeons, ladies high in rank, 
and men of a distinguished position in the world could all be named : 
their practice of the art is well-known in their respective circles ; 
and by many I have been favored with information that is surpris- 
ing and interesting in the highest degree. The details of their 
respective success are so copious that they would fill a thick vol- 
ume. Of course, I am precluded by the brief nature of this little 
work from doing more than glancing at their leading points. If I 
selected a few cases for insertion, the choice would be most per- 
plexing ; and if I began, I should not know where to stop. They 
can only, therefore, be noticed in the most cursory manner. But 
even with this limited allusion, and with the addition of the names 
of some who have previously appeared before the public, but of 
whom many of my readers may not have heard, I shall be able to 
produce, what the lawyers would call such a mass of cumulative 
evidence, as nothing but the scepticism of science could prevent 
men from admitting to be at least a startling and important phe- 
nomenon. 

Mr. Atkinson, then, of whom mention has been made before, 
has been eminently successful in his treatment of numerous dis- 
eases, some of which too generally defy all human skill. He 
has accomplished three cares in that most fearful of maladies, tic 
doloreux : one case was of ten years'' standing ; and the other two 
of several years' duration. He has cured several cases of fits, of 
hysteria and want of sleep, and of those determined nervous and 
sick headaches, which seldom yield to remedial action. He has 
been successful in various acute nervous pains and contractions of 
the limbs, in asthma, fever, long-standing cough, affections of the 
heart and spine, injured sight, and deafness, in melancholia, rheu- 
matism, toothache, indigestion, and different functional obstruc- 
tions. He has found Mesmerism efficacious to a most valuable 
extent in subduing cerebral excitement. He had a patient under 



44 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

his treatment, whose irritability of brain was becoming a source 
of much anxiety. By the application of Mesmerism every day 
for a fortnight all the formidable symptoms disappeared ; the head 
became cool ; the paroxysms ceased ; and the functions of the 
brain were restored to a calm and healthy state. The efficacy of 
Mesmerism in maladies of this description is almost incredible. 
Its soothing influence has so speedy an effect. Mr. Atkinson has 
indeed such copious and invaluable information to communicate, 
that the public have reason to hope that one day he may place the 
results of his experience before them. 

Captain John James, of Dover, has great experience in the 
practice, and has contributed much towards its full appreciation. 
His patients have been numerous. He has found Mesmerism 
most efficacious in nervous disorders ; and in several other com- 
plaints, he has greatly alleviated the sufferings of his patients. 

The late Mr. Chenevix, a well known name in the literary world, 
the author of a beautiful article in the Edinburgh Review on "France 
a r id England," and a man of considerable scientific attainments, as 
his communications in the Philosophical Transactions show, was 
preparing a work to demonstrate the results of his experiments 
and observations on 442 persons, when an acute disease suddenly 
terminated his own existence. In the course of six months he 
once mesmerised 164 persons, of" whom 98 manifested undenia- 
ble effects. There was hardly one instance where disease exist- 
ed, that relief was not procured." His efforts were immense ; 
and his success proportionate. To mention a few instances : he 
cured a case of epilepsy and spasmodic Spain of six years' stand- 
ing in twenty-one sittings. He succeeded completely in three 
other cases of the same disease, and procured immense relief in 
eight. He cured a man far advanced in a rapid consumption. 
He cured seven cases of worms ; and produced a most powerful 
effect on some men in the Coldstream Guards. He was of ser- 
vice, also, to several inmates in Wakefield Lunatic Asylum. The 
reader is referred for further information respecting this lamented 
man to the first number of the Zoist. 

The cases reported by the Reverend Chauncy Townshend in 
his philosophical work, called, " Facts in Mesmerism," are re- 
markable from the answer they afford to the common opinion, 
that the effects of Mesmerism are limited to a few nervous and 
fanciful persons, chiefly of the weaker sex. While he has adopt- 
ed Mesmerism extensively in cases of sickness, he mentions that 
when he first took it up, " out of twenty-three individuals, in whom 
he induced sleepwaking, more or less perfectly, six only were wo- 
men, one only a decided invalid." He gives the account of seven 
or eight young men " in perfect health," — " in good and robust 
health," who were Mesmerised by him. His description of his 
power over some sceptics at Cambridge is so curious and con- 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 45 

•Wincing, that it should be read by every candid inquirer. In re- 
spect to Mesmerism as a curative agent, he says himself, after 
^ much experience, •' its capacity to serve either as a calmant or 
stimulant, according to the exigencies of the complaint, would 
alone give it the highest rank as a remedy. In this point of view, 
how valuable appear its offices, how unmatched by those of any 
substance in the Materia Medica." " Of all remedies, this alone 
pours its benefits direct upon the very springs of sensation." " In 
cases of deafness and blindness, which depend on nervous weak- 
ness, we possess a subtle means of acting efficiently upon the 
fountain-head of the calamity." Though " insulated cases of bene- 
fit" he adds, " might seem suspicious, benefits on so large a scale 
must finally vanquish distrust." And he concludes his notice to 
the second edition of his work, " with a deep regret that prejudice 
should yet stand in the way of so much alleviation of so much hu- 
man suffering as it is calculated to afford, and with an humble 
hope that truth and time will lead to a discreet and grateful use of 
this wonderful gift to man." 

Colonel Sir Thomas Willshire, commanding at Chatham, has 
practised Mesmerism extensively, and with great success. It is 
no new thing to see the gallant profession of arms lending the 
warmest aid to the cause of humanity ; and many military men, 
with a zeal and benevolence that reflect the highest honor upon 
them, have taken up our science. To Sir Thomas Willshire, in 
particular, occupying as he does so distinguished a position, the 
highest admiration is due ; — and while very many interesting par- 
ticulars could be related by him, one is so striking, that it cannot 
be too often laid before the public. 

A nursery servant, who had been for along time suffering pain 
in her upper jaw, of a most excruciating kind, was compelled to 
undergo a severe operation on its account. The pain was so in- 
tense, that she could scarcely bear a touch on the part affected. 
Sir T. Willshire put her into the Mesmeric trance, and the sur- 
geon commenced the operation. It lasted more than five minutes. 
She did not feel it the least. Not a muscle or nerve either twitched 
or moved. When Sir Thomas awoke her, she was not conscious 
of having gone through the operation. 

It should be added that the sympathy of taste was developed 
in this case. When Sir Thomas took wine, the patient said she 
tasted it. The same experiment was tried with biscuit, and she 
" tasted biscuit." And though she felt not the pain of the opera- 
tion, when Captain Valiant pinched Sir Thomas's hand, she im- 
mediately felt it, and said she did not like it. 

Among other cases, Sir Thomas Willshire has cured a servant, 
named Catharine Cocks, of a pulmonary complaint, with which 
she had been very ill and affected for years. She is now per- 
fectly restored to health and strength, and is " robust and well ;" 
" though the medical gentleman, who had attended her for some 



46 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

years, had, previously to the mesmeric operation, assured her** 
parents that she could not survive the ensuing winter," 

Earl Stanhope, whose philanthropy and Christian kindness are 
so universally known and admired, is a practise! - of the science. 
This excellent nobleman is not deterred by popular prejudice, or 
by the ridicule which some newspapers have endeavored to cast 
upon him for his zeal in the cause, — from appearing as the ad- 
vocate of truth. In a letter, of which he has permitted me to 
make use, the noble lord mentions several cases, in which he had 
been of signal service to some of his sick and poorer neighbors. 
In particular, he gives the case of a young man, aged twenty- 
seven, who had been obliged to give up his place on account of a 
nervous affection, which produced syncope, upon every trifling 
excitement. After being mesmerised a few times, he was perfect- 
ly cured. Another was the case of a young woman, aged twenty- 
two, the daughter of a day-laborer, who was afflicted with such 
violent epileptic fits, that she also was obliged to retire from ser- 
vice. After a treatment of a short duration, she was pronounced 
quite well, and returned to her situation with her former master. 
Other very interesting particulars could be added, if the limits of 
this work allowed it. 

Miss Wallace, a most benevolent lady in Cheltenham, whose 
exertions are unremitting in everything that can be of service to 
the cause of humanity, can give the strongest attestation to the 
truth of the Mesmeric power. She has had several most extra- 
ordinary cases under her management. She has cured two cases 
of decline, — the only two of the kind that she has attempted. 
She has cured sciatica, — the most violent cramps, epilepsy, head- 
aches, ear-aches, — and some without sleep being induced. Seve- 
ral of her other cases are very remarkable ; and I hardly know 
any one more able to give valuable evidence and information con- 
nected with the science, than this amiable and active-minded friend 
of truth. 

Several other ladies and gentlemen in Cheltenham and the 
neighborhood have been for some time practising the art : and 
could speak in the strongest way of its beneficial effect with their 
patients. 

Captain Valiant, of Chatham, who a short time ago was a 
" thorough sceptic," as he called himself, is now a most powerful 
and successful Mesmeriser. Numerous cases could be related in 
which he has relieved pain, reduced swellings, and obtained a 
complete cure. His power seems unusually great. He writes, 
" I have myself mesmerised many persons of both sexes, and have 
seen others succeed with a great many more. I have also, in many 
cases, without putting the patient to sleep, removed head-aches, 
tooth-aches, sore-throats, and several other pains, not only in wo- 
men, but strong men, merely by manipulating the parts affected." 
Space is wanting for an insertion of some interesting facts con- 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 47 

nected with a few of his patients : but the attention of the reader 
is invited to the following : " In my practice of Mesmerism, I 
have met two curious cases which perhaps may be worth men- 
tionino-. In both of these my subjects were powerful men, brother 
captains in the army, whom I had repeatedly tried to mesmerise, 
but could only succeed in closing their eyes, without being able 
to put them to sleep, so that they could not possibly open them, till 
I de-mesmerised them. I could close their eyes in about two 
minutes, even by giving them a glass of magnetised water. I 
had also the power of catalepsing the limbs of one of them by 
making passes over them." Captain Valiant's testimony, like that 
of Mr. Townshend's, is a most valuable answer to those who 
think that Mesmerism applies only to patients that are " highly 
nervous and hysterical." 

Mr. Baldock of Chatham can bear most useful testimony to the 
curative powers of Mesmerism. " Several case3," he says, " have 
presented themselves to him, in which relief has been given to 
the parties." In palpitations of the heart and severe head-aches 
he has been very successful. One of his cures is so remarkable, 
that I shall give the particulars. It is that of Robert Flood, now 
residing at Caistor in Linscolnhire. Mr. Flood had for several 
years suffered most severely from disease in one of his kidneys, 
He had been under the care of different medical men, — and had 
been placed in a London hospital. His pains were so acute, that 
he could not leave his bed until the day was advanced ; — and 
even then it was necessary for him to recline several times before 
retiring for the night. He had been in this state for several years. 
Mr. Baldock was the happy instrument of restoring him to health, 
after a Mesmeric treatment of three months. This poor fellow, 
great part of whose time was spent in bed from pain and weak- 
ness, is " now in such robust health that he can throw a quoit." 
Mr. Baldock has several other most valuable instances of cure 
and relief: and as he keeps a journal of his Mesmeric proceedings, 
we may hope that these interesting particulars will be placed more 
fully before us. 

Mr. Majendie, of Clarges House, at Ryde, in the Isle of Wight, 
has practised Mesmerism for the last two years with great advan- 
tage to the health of several persons. He says in a letter, " I 
have seen much of the curative effects of Mesmerism." Several 
of his cases are most instructive. Invalids, who had been inca- 
pable of any exertion or labor, through a deranged system, have 
been cured or restored to comparative health. One of the facts, 
that he mentions, is so corroborative of the electrical theory of 
Animal-Magnetism, that it deserves to be recorded. " Without 
the slightest suggesting or prompting, the patient said, that sue 
saw the sparks of fire pass from the points of my fingers into the 
water which I magnetised for her." This same phenomenon has 
been observed by other somnambulist patients. Mr. Majendie has 



48 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

given great attention to the subject of Mesmerism ; and his opinion 
on all matters connected with it is of much value. 

Besides Mr. Majendie, several other parties, ladies as well as 
gentlemen, have taken up the practice in the Isle of Wight ; and 
some very curious facts, illustrative of the power, and of the 
curative effects of Mesmerism, might be collected in that quarter. 

Mr. Topham, of the Temple, whose services in the well-known 
case of poor Wombell were so invaluable, and of whom, there- 
fore, the Chirurgical Society seem to entertain a professional 
jealousy, has much experience in the practice. It may be useful 
to record one of his cases ; that of a young man, aged 18, who, 
for four years and a half, had been subject to epileptic fits, — at 
least three a week, and each of two hours' duration. He suffered 
also from incessant pains in his head. Upon being mesmerised, 
the pains immediately ceased altogether ; his natural sleep became 
sound and regular ; and he had two fits only in the space of three 
months. The Mesmeric treatment was unavoidably discontinued 
in this case — before the case became perfected ; but the change 
in the young man's health is something quite remarkable. 

Mr. Thompson of Fairfield House, near York, is a very suc- 
cessful Mesmeriser. After much experience, he speaks in the 
strongest way of the utility of the science, and of the benefit that 
may be derived from it. He is often able to remove acute pain 
without producing sleep. He says that he has tested this re- 
peatedly " with almost invariable success ; mitigating, and very 
often altogether removing tooth-ache, head-ache, rheumatic pains, 
and pains occasioned by contusions, burns, and any inflammation ;" 
— and in some few cases of a severe or acute character he has 
been able to afford great relief. 

One of his cases is such a beautiful illustration of the power of 
Mesmerism, that I regret my inability, from want of space, to give 
the full particulars. It is that of John Bradley, a boy near York, 
■ — aged nine years, who had suffered for fifteen months from a dis- 
eased knee, — evidently of a scrofulous character. When Mr. 
Thompson first saw him, " the child had been suffering intense 
agony, — was unable to rest day or night, had a total want of appe- 
tite ; — there was great inflammation extending above the knee ; — 
the knee was enormously enlarged, and it was evident that exten- 
sive suppuration had taken place in the inside of the knee." " The 
child was in a high state of fever, a deep hectic flush was on his 
cheeks, attended with quickness of breathing and a short cough." 
Mr. Thompson determined to try the " experiment of making passes 
over the knee for half an hour. Before the time had nearly ex- 
pired, the child became calm and still, then began to smile, and 
said he felt a warm heat come out of Mr. Thompson's fingers, which 
had taken away the pain. He seemed a little drowsy, but no sleep 
was produced." After a certain period of treatment, the child's 
tiealth rapidly improved, — the inflammation of the knee subsided, 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 49 

absorption of the matter took place, and in a month he was able to 
put his toe to the ground. After many other particulars, Mr. 
Thompson adds, " that it was in May that I commenced mesmer- 
ising him ; by the latter end of August the recovery was as com- 
plete, as I thought it possible that a knee, so deformed from long- 
standing disease, could be." He has great use of the limb ; is 
able to walk about very well, — suffers not the slightest pain or 
inconvenience, — and his health is very good. One fact is too 
curious to be omitted. " During the process of recovery, he never 
but once went to sleep under the operation of Mesmerism." 

Here is another valuable proof of the remedial power of Mes- 
merism in Mr. Thompson's hands. A gentleman who had been 
suffering for nine consecutive days from severe rheumatic fever, 
with acute pain in the shoulders, arms, hands, loins, legs and 
knees ; with the fever excessive ; profuse night sweats caused by 
the agony of pain, — and loss of sleep and of appetite, placed him- 
self under the management of Mr. Thompson. These are his 
own words : " In less than twenty minutes you had nearly charmed 
away all the pain and restored warmth and feeling to my feet. 
You then put me to sleep : the delightful sensation of that sleep, 
after such extreme pain, I can scarcely describe. When you 
awakened me, I felt like another person. The fever was reduced : 
and the pain was gone. In four days I was down stairs : every 
time you mesmerised me, I felt as it were new life.'' 1 

Mr. Thompson gives a description of three cures of severe and 
long-standing neuralgic pains of the head. One of the parties 
had been under the first medical advice in London ; " had a great 
horror of Mesmerism, without any faith in its curing her" One 
day, when much worse than usual, she asked for its application : 
in less than ten minutes she was relieved ; and woke up entirely 
free from pain ; and her general health has been very good ever 
since. 

Captain Anderson, of the Royal Marines, who is resident at 
Chelmsford, — is another very powerful Mesmeriser. His last 
case is so very striking an instance of the merciful power of Mes- 
merism that I shall give it somewhat in detail. Mrs. Raymond, 
a lady residing at Chelmsford, had suffered for nine years from a 
spinal complaint, — being confined to her sofa, and unable to be 
moved day and night; she had also lost the use of her voice. 
Her sufferings were dreadful. Blisters, caustic plasters, leeches, 
setons, medicines of all descriptions, were tried in succession, 
without any substantial good. These are her own words : 
" During the nine years I was unable to be moved from my sofa 
night or day ; I was never free from pain ; sometimes the agony 
was indescribable: the three last years I have been entirely 
speechless. I had given up all hope of recovery and almost 
prayed for death." " At the very time that I had resigned myself 
to my fate, and begged that my sufferings might soon be ended, 
4 



50 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

God in liis great, mercy made me acquainted with Captain Ander- 
son, who offered to try the effect of Mesmerism." " I laughed at 
the idea ; but from his account of the cures he had performed, I 
complied, — being anxious to grasp at anything which would do 
me good." Without following out the details, this is the result. 
" I am now able to walk out daily alone and unassisted. I am 
regaining my speech ; — and I am free from pain, sleep soundly, 
and take no medicine, and am now seldom mesmerised." Well 
may this excellent lady, when comparing " her past sufferings with 
her present happiness," say that she " feels thankful to God and 
grateful to Captain Anderson ;" for here is a case, which alone 
would be able to substantiate the healing virtues of this blessed 
gift. 

Dr. Engledue of Portsea practises Mesmerism in his profes- 
sion, and is- a warm advocate in its cause. W T hoever has studied 
the fine intellectual forehead of Dr. Engledue, and watched his 
clear eye, and calm thoughtful countenance, must acknowledge, 
that there stands a philosopher in the truest acceptation of the 
word, and one little likely to be led astray by the unreal fancies of 
a heated imagination. 

Mr. Weekes, a surgeon at Sandwich, has " for two years de- 
voted a large portion of his time and attention to the great remedial 
powers proceeding from the judicious application of Mesmerism ;" 
■ — and for this independent and noble-minded conduct, he has been, 
of course, traduced by the ignorant and the malevolent. He has, 
however, the satisfaction of knowing, that the alleviation of pain 
and the removal of disease, under the Mesmeric treatment, and 
through his management, has been considerable. His professional 
success has been great. With him, Mesmerism has proved of use, 
" after the usual modes of treatment, and, in some instances, 
abundance of quackery to boot, had utterly failed, and rendered 
the case more inveterate and distressing." Among the cases that 
he mentions are some of " dyspepsia, habitual and obstinate con- 
stipation, paralysis, sluggish condition of the hepatic system, and 
hypochondriasis, muscular contractions, stubborn and otherwise 
hopeless cases of chronic rheumatism, local pains, and several 
severe forms of neuralgia, cases of general languor and debility 
without manifest cause, as also a case of deafness, — the removal 
of two teeth without the knowledge of the patient, besides several 
affections of an anomalous character." Mr. Weekes is proceed- 
ing firmly and actively : his name ranks high with all parties ; 
and he is reaping an abundant reward. 

Mr, Gardiner, of Portsmouth, is a powerful supporter of the truth 
of Mesmerism. He gives a valuable account of the extraction of 
two teeth, attended by most painful circumstances, without the 
consciousness of the party. " During the whole of this trying 
operation not a groan or complaint escaped the patient." Other 
severe operations have been performed by him " without manifes~ 
tation of feeling" on the part of the patient. 



MESMERISM AND IT8 OPPONENTS. 51 

Mr. Prideaux, of Southampton, is another great practical Mes- 
meriser. He reports three remarkable cases of the cure of St. 
Vitus's dance, in which the " twitchings" diminished perceptibly 
from day to day, under Mesmeric treatment. From five different 
patients he has extracted teeth without their consciousness. His 
description of their demeanor under this usually painful operation 
is most curious. " The patient sat with the hands quietly folded 
in the lap, the countenance was placid and serene, and the whole 
attitude that of repose." " The insensibility was perfect" of the 
three other patients. The fifth " allowed me to operate for two 
hours with the most passive indifference.'''' Mr. Prideaux, himself 
a medical man, says of one of his patients, " a case more conclu- 
sive of the power of Mesmerism as a remedial agent in the cure of 
disease, it would be difficult to conceive." " If imagination," 
says he again, " can work such wonders, she should be placed at 
the head of the Materia Medica." With many such enlightened 
practitioners as Mr. Prideaux, the well-attested facts of Mesmer- 
ism will soon force their way on the mind of the public. 

Mr. Janson of Pennsylvania Park, near Exeter, the President 
of the Exeter Literary and Philosophical Society, and a gentle- 
man well known in that part of the world among scientific men, is 
also a Mesmeriser, and can bear his valuable testimony to the 
therapeutic virtues of the science. 

Mr. Kiste, a most intelligent gentleman from Germany, and 
who has been resident some little time in Plymouth, has devoted 
much of his attention to the science. Among the cases in which 
he has found it efficacious, one alone can be particularly mention- 
ed, which by itself would confirm the unspeakable value of Mes- 
merism. It was a severe case of spasmodic asthma. The pa- 
tient had been subject to it for twelve years. She says herself, 
that such were her sufferings, that for " many days she wa3 
obliged to sit with a pillow on her lap to support her stomach." 
"The paroxysms were so violent that she^was obliged to sit on 
the floor for four-and-twenty hours at a time." " To describe half 
my sufferings when the spasmodic breathing came on, is impossi- 
ble." She had been attended by eight or nine medical men in 
succession. Cupping, blistering, hot baths, were tried, but with- 
out any important effect. In short, her own description of the pe- 
riodical pains which returned every fortnight, of their severity, 
and of other attendant evils, is painful to read. A clergyman, 
well acquainted with her family, now writes to the Mesmeriser, 
and says, " It is now at this moment (Jan. 29) nine weeks since 
she was subjected to the Mesmeric influence, and she has beenen- 
tirely free from asthma, her general health is improved, and she is 
gaining flesh." I shall not enter into the further details of this 
very striking and interesting case ; as we have, reason to hope 
that Mr. Kiste will himself shortly bring them before the public. 
Mr. Holm, of Highgate, who, in a most philanthropic manner, 



52 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

devotes much of his time to the benefit of his fellow creatures, 
has found Mesmerism a most efficacious remedy. He has ob- 
tained some very remarkable cures. He generally has a large 
number of Mesmeric patients under his management. He tells 
me, that he has proved Mesmerism to be most valuable in epilep- 
sy, rheumatism, brain fever, diarrhoea, headaches, and many neu- 
ralgic disorders. Mr. Holm has large experience in phrenology, 
and has tested with great success its connection with vital mag- 
netism. 

Mr. Charles Childs, of Bungay, " was very much indisposed to 
receive the phenomena of Mesmerism as facts," " but he was con- 
strained to admit their reality, unless he would deny the evidence 
of his own senses." He says, " I have practised Mesmerism 
above four years ; in this period, I have proved its unquestionably 
ieneficial results on several of the most afflictive maladies." In cor- 
roboration of the above, I can state, that I called on the mother of 
one of Mr. Childs's patients, and heard from her own mouth the 
details of a very remarkable cure of a child that had been fright- 
ened in a fearful manner. Every other remedy but Mesmerism , 
seemed to fail in this case. Mr. Childs generally has about four 
patients at a time under his hands. Much attention has been 
awakened in his neighborhood by the following operations. I 
quote from the very able letter which Mr. Webb, the operating 
surgeon, addressed to the editor of " The Medical Times." Mr. 
Webb says, that he does " not come forward to support the theory 
of any man. He desires only, as an unprejudiced observer, tore- 
cord facts which he had himself tested." The cases are these : 
" Two young women, Mesmeric patients of Mr. Childs, who had 
suffered from toothache for some time past, consented to have their 
teeth extracted while in Mesmeric somnolency, but were not ap- 
prised of the time at which this was to be done. That they 
might have no reason to suspect what was about to take place, I 
was not sent for until Mr. Childs had put them into the Mesmeric 
condition, when I went and extracted for one a very troublesome 
stump, and for the other, a double tooth in the upper jaw. I am 
morally certain that no means were employed to produce this 
state of unconsciousness except the Mesmeric." * * * * " After 
a short time they were awakened, and were both wholly uncon- 
scious of all that had taken place." " Nor was this all ; for nei- 
ther at the time when they were awakened, nor on the following 
day, did they experience either pain in the jaw or tenderness in 
the gum." Evidence like this, coming from the surgeon him- 
self, h«is a twofold strength. 

A similar operation took place at Hinckley in Leicestershire, 
last June, upon a young man, named Paul. The tooth was ex- 
tracted during the Mesmeric sleep, without consciousness. Paul 
told a correspondent of mine, that " he did not feel any pain what* 
ever." 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 53 

Mr. Nicholles, of Bruton Street, has extracted two or three 
teeth from patients in the Mesmeric sleep, without their knowledge. 
In his last case, he says, "The pulse was 108 under the Mes- 
meric influence, and rose a little during the operation. On being 
awakened she expressed the most lively gratitude and delight at 
having lost her troublesome companion." 

Another striking case of this kind was the extraction of a tooth 
from W. Gill, at Edinburgh, without pain, on May 1, 1843, by- 
Mr. Nasmyth, Surgeon-Dentist to the Queen. Several medical 
gentlemen were present. Mr. Craig was the Mesmeriser. Gill 
had no feeling when the tooth was being extracted, but after he 
was awakened, he felt a soreness and pain in the gums. 

Mr. Carstairs of Sheffield, who practises Mesmerism, has ex- 
tracted teeth from parties who were not aware of the operation. 
He has also performed several minor operations, such as opening 
an abscess and dressing the wound ; cutting a large wart from a 
patient's hand ; inserting a seton, without the parties feeling the 
slightest pain or suffering any inconvenience. Other medical 
men in Sheffield have employed Mesmerism as a medical auxilia- 
ry, and could bear testimony to its usefulness. 

Mr. Chandler, a surgeon of Rotherhithe, has much experience 
of the beneficial effects of Mesmerism. Among other cases, he 
has had one of insanity, in which his Mesmeric power was invalu- 
able. He " produced a cure, rapid and perfect, when bleeding 
and powerful medicines, and medicines given powerfully and per- 
severingly, had all been unavailing." 

Mr. Purland, of Mortimer Street, Cavendish Square, offers an 
honorable instance of the triumph of truth over prejudice and pre- 
conceived opinions. I met Mr. Purland, last July, at the house of 
a friend : his opinions against the existence of Mesmerism as a 
fact were most decisive ; I had much conversation with him, but 
did not shake him in the least. He consented, however, to wit- 
ness some Mesmeric experiments ; and after giving them a due 
and patient investigation, he became a convert, and is now a valu- 
able ally, and has practised the art with great success. He has 
cured his father of a dreadful and most distressing malady, in a 
case where no relief was procured from medicine. He has cured 
cases of asthma, hysteria, lameness, and deafness. At various 
times he has relieved patients of headache, toothache, pains in the 
chest, &c. He calls Mesmerism, in a letter I lately received 
from him, " a science of much importance ;" and this from a gen- 
tleman, who a few months back was a determined sceptic ! Such, 
however, is the force of truth, where straightforward and honora- 
ble intentions go hand in hand with the inquiry. 

Mr. Boyton, a surgeon of Watlington, in Oxfordshire, is another 
honorable example of a manly independence of mind. His ac- 
knowledged reputation in his profession gives value to what he 
states. He has cured a severe case of fits ; and another serious 



54 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

case of injury, accompanied by much pain, and general ill health. 
He says, " I do not mean to recommend the indiscriminate use of 
this agent in every case, nor substitute it for acknowledged reme- 
dies. But in some cases I should not hesitate to employ it ; it 
strengthens the nervous system, improves the digestion, and tranquil- 
lizes the mind" This is most important testimony. 

Dr. Wilson, of the Middlesex Hospital, is so well known by his 
publications on the subject to be a firm supporter of the truths of 
Mesmerism, that it is only needful to allude to his name. Some 
readers, may, however, be interested in learning, that Dr. Wilson 
has cured a case of insanity, or intense melancholy, by the aid of 
Mesmerism. 

Mr. Mulholland, of Walsall, is a most earnest and successful 
Mesmerist. He has reduced a wen of eleven years' standing, 
and of the size of a goose's egg, so completely, that it requires 
acute observation to detect it. 

Mr. Stenson, of Northampton, is another valuable supporter of 
the cause. He has cured cases of fits, melancholia, &c, &c. 
He says that he looks forward with well-grounded hope to Mes- 
merism being more generally applied as a curative means. 

Mr. Summers, of Chatham, has acted successfully upon a case 
of obstinate hernia by Mesmerism. 

Dr. Cryer, of Bradford, states a case where a young girl, named 
Louisa Taylor, who had lost the use of her arm and leg by pa- 
ralysis, was materially benefited by the Mesmeric treatment of 
Mr. Prest of that town. • 

Mr. Brindley, of Stourbridge, has cured various diseases by 
this power : an affection of the heart, of seven years' standing ; 
a case of general debility of the nervous system ; and several 
cases of fits and rheumatic pains, &c, &c. 

Mr. Tubbs, of Upwell Isle, in Cambridgeshire, has proved the 
reality and efficacy of Mesmerism in the treatment of many dis- 
eases. Delirium from grief, muscular pain, chronic rheumatism, 
and several other cases could be named, where he found the 
Mesmeric treatment most successful. This earnest friend to the 
cause of humanity has found Mesmerism most efficacious in 
several operations, in the extraction of teeth, &c. Mr. Tubbs 
has, at this moment, some most interesting patients under his 
care. 

Mr. Donovan, the able phrenologist of King William Street, 
Strand, can give very valuable testimony as to the powers and 
virtues of our science. 

In Wolverhampton, Mesmerism is making vast strides in popu- 
lar estimation. Dr. Owens, of Stourbridge, a medical gentleman, 
lately made many converts by the following operation : — " A 
young woman, suffering dreadfully from toothache, was thrown 
into the Mesmeric sleep, for the purpose of having the tooth ex- 
tracted. A sceptical dentist happened to be present and under- 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 55 

took the operation. There was much difficulty in the case. The 
key slipped from the tooth twice ; and a splinter, nearly an inch 
and a half in length, was broken from the alveolar portion of the 
jaw. Still there was not the slightest manifestation of pain ; and 
the patient, on being brought to herself, had not the slightest idea 
that the operation had been performed. The dentist said that 
M there was no more movement than there would have been in a 
corpse." About eighty persons were present. 

Mr. Gibbon Wakefield, who is so well known in the political 
world, and was such a staunch unbeliever in the science, is now 
" satisfied of its truth, and has since mesmerised many hundred 
persons." 

The names of numerous other Mesmerisers might be mentioned, 
who could all bear testimony to the curative power of the art. 
Among them are Mr. Vernon, who was so disgracefully treated 
by the medical gentlemen of Greenwich ; Mr. Bailey, Mr. Spen- 
cer Hall, Mr. Hart, of Rochester, Dr. Collyer, Mr. Dove, and 
many others. 

In Scotland, Mesmerism has taken a firm root. Its remedial 
power has been tested over and over again. And Mr. Lang's 
useful little work on " Mesmerism, with a Report of Cases deve- 
loped in Scotland," should be read by every person solicitous of 
the truth. 

Dr. Elliotson's eminent success in the practice is too well 
known to require notice. All, who really seek for valuable infor- 
mation on this head, should consult his Papers in the Zoist. They 
will there see the cases reported in detail, and enriched by medi- 
cal observations of the highest value. Let it be sufficient to state 
that he has cured cases of insanity, cases of St. Vitus's dance, of 
palsy, of loss of voice, of deafness and dumbness, of epileptic and 
other fits ; cases where every other medical treatment had utterly 
failed. The increasing circulation of the Zoist has placed these 
wonderful facts so completely within the reach of the medical 
student, that this brief allusion to them is no otherwise necessary 
than to make our list of leading Mesmerisers complete. 

Here, then, is a train of witnesses in favor of our science. Here 
is a succession of evidence from men of ability, of education, of 
honorable standing in society, from whose report alone, the exist- 
ence of Mesmerism as a fact in nature might be confidently pre- 
dicated ! And this list might have been swelled to any extent ! 
What an amount, moreover, have we here of happiness conferred ! 
What a mass of misery, of pain, of sickness, or sorrow lightened 
or removed ! Here, at length, are a few pleasing pages in the 
long sad chapter of human life ! Here, at last, is a delightful 
study for the philanthropist and the Christian ! And all these 
blessings communicated by means of a power that is derided, or 
dreaded, or disbelieved ! We have confined our testimony to 
what has occurred in this country alone, and within the last few 



56 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

years ; but what a pile of narratives could have been added to it, 
if the limits of an humble work like this would have allowed it. It 
might have been added that, on the Continent, Mesmerism has 
been received as a fact (unfait accompli) for years ; that in Ger- 
many it is studied and practised to a considerable extent ; that in 
Prussia many physicians make use of it under the authority of 
government ; and that in Berlin in particular the greatest success 
has attended its use ; that in Stockholm degrees are granted in 
the university by an examination on its laws ; that in Russia the 
Emperor appointed a commission of medical men to inquire into 
it, and that this commission pronounced it " a very important 
agent," — that the first physician of the emperor, and many others 
at St. Petersburgh, speak in favor of its utility ; and that at Mos- 
cow a systematic course of treatment, under the highest auspices, 
has been employed for years. In Denmark, physicians practise 
it under a royal ordinance and by a decree of the College of 
Health. In Holland, some of the first men take it up. In France, 
the extent to which it is practised is considerable indeed. I have 
it from good authority, that in Paris every fourth medical man is 
a Mesmerist. A commission of the Royal Academy of Medicine 
there recommended that Mesmerism should lie allowed a place 
within the circle of the medical sciences (comme moyen thera- 
peutique devrait trouver sa place dans le cadre des connaissances 
medicales). Some of the first physicians in Paris affixed their 
signatures to this report. I might mention the cases related by 
Foissac in his Report :* I might give extracts without number on 
the subject from different French and German works. I might 
quote from De Leuze, Puysegur, Wienholt, Treviranus, Brandis 
of Copenhagen, &c, usque ad nauseam. The great name of 
Huf eland, of Berlin, is a host in itself. 

I have a curious little French work by me, called " La Verite 
du Magnetisme prouvee par les Faits," in which the list of cures 
effected by a lady in Paris is quite marvellous. In the United 
States the same mighty progress has been made. Mr. Bucking- 
ham, the distinguished traveller, told me that it is there practised 
to a very great extent. In his amusing work on that country, he 
mentions several curious Mesmeric cases and phenomena that he 
witnessed in Philadelphia, at the Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb, 
tried upon children in the presence of several physicians and legal 
gentlemen, when it appeared proved beyond suspicion, to the 
satisfaction of all present, that " there was a complete suspension 
of the susceptibility of pain during the state" of Mesmerism. Dr. 
Mitchell, an eminent physician of Philadelphia, mentioned an 
operation performed by him in the extraction of a tooth under 
most painful circumstances, when no .feeling was experienced, 

* Rapports sur le Magnetisme Animal, par M. P. Foissac, Docteur ea 
Medecine. 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 57 

and no recollection of the fact existed afterwards.* And who 
and what are the men that have thus advocated Mesmerism? I 
shall answer in the words of the celebrated French physiologist, 
Dr. Georget, who says, " It is a very astonishing thing that ani- 
mal magnetism is not even known by name among the ignorant 
classes : it is among the enlightened ranks that it finds support. 
It is men who have received some education who have taken its 
cause in hand : it is partly learned men, naturalists, physicians, 
piiilosophers, who have composed the numerous volumes in its 
favor.-'f And what is the reply of our opponents to this pyramid 
of facts ? That they are all cases of delusion ! Granted, for the 
sake of argument, that very many might be so — that in several 
instances the ablest men might be deceived : what then ? still, 
even with the largest deduction under this head, what an accumu- 
lation of evidence would yet remain ! As Mr. Colquhoun ob- 
serves, " Upon what evidence are we permitted to believe any 
series of facts ? What amount of proof is required ?" The host 
of competent and highly-qualified men, who have narrated their 
experience, forbid the supposition of a universal delusion. Some 
other theory must be adopted. Mesmerism is a science of facts. 
To facts we appeal : and we do not believe, as has been well 
observed, that " any science rests upon experiments more nume- 
rous, more positive, or more easily ascertained. "J 

To facts, then, it is repeated, do we appeal. What the nature 
of those facts is, it is superfluous to mention. I presume that 
most of my readers have a general notion respecting them ; that 
they are aware, how that after certain manipulations a deep sleep 
comes on ; how that this is followed by the phenomena of attrac- 
tion, of sympathy, of insensibility, of phreno-magnetism, and other 
singular manifestations, all varying with various sleepers ; and 
how that, when the patient is awakened, a sanative or soothing 
effect is generally experienced. To the higher order of pheno- 
mena, such as clairvoyance, internal vision, and so forth, I have 
made little allusion. Not that I disbelieve, or have not witnessed 
something of them. But this work aims strictly at a practical 
character. I have no wish to astonish or amuse. Those won- 
drous facts of clairvoyance, which cause the faith of so many to 



* Buckingham's " America," Vol. ii., p. 119 — 125. 

f Apud " Isis Revelata," Vol. ii., p. 45. 

% " II a ete etabli en France, et dans presque tous les pays du nord, des 
traitemens magnetiques, ou des milliers de malades ont trouve la sanle. La 
relation detaillee d'un grand nombre de guerisons a ete publiee, soit par les 
particuliers, soit par les societes de l'harmonie." — Foissac, Rapports, p. 500. 

This was said by Foissac, a medical man himself, more than ten years ago, 
—in 1833, before the practice of Mesmerism was much known in England. 
If Foissac could say in 1833 that there were thousands of sick persons who 
had received benefit from the art, what might he not state now ? This, let 
it be remembered, is the main question ; that the number of successful cases 
proves the power. 



58 



MESMERI8M AND ITS OPPONENTS. 



hesitate, have no necessary bearing on the therapeutic qualities 
of Mesmerism. They might all be false, and yet the healing vir- 
tues of the magnetic slumber remain unquestioned. At the same 
time, it may not be useless to mention, that there is not one sin- 
gle phenomenon of the higher order of Mesmerism, which has not 
been found to exist in a natural state and spontaneously, in some 
recorded cases of extremely-diseased individuals. The annals of 
natural somnambulism are full of them. Mesmerism simply brings 
out in the process of cure and by artificial means, what nature 
throws forth in the action of disease. Take the staggering fact 
of reading with the eyes closed, through, what I believe, an elec- 
tric communication. This has occurred in a natural state. The 
report is to be found in the 3Sth volume of the French Encyclo- 
paedia, on the authority of the then Archbishop of Bordeaux. It 
was the case of a young ecclesiastic, who walked in his sleep, — 
took pen, ink, and paper, and composed and wrote his sermons, 
and read, with his eyes closed, To test him, the archbishop held 
a piece of pasteboard before his face to prevent his seeing, but he 
appeared to see equally well. Now, we repeat, that this case 
had no connection with Mesmerism, — that it is quite independent 
of it, — that it occurred spontaneously and in a natural state, and 
is established on as high authority as any single fact in science- 
It was simply the effect of a morbid action on the nervous system 
of the young man. And so of all the other strange phenomena of 
Mesmerism ; there is not one of them but has its parallel in some 
instance of common somnambulism : and I know no study that 
would so well prepare the mind of the student for a due apprehen- 
sion of this question, as a perusal of the marvellous facts that have 
been recorded in the histories of many natural sleepwalkers. 
However, a further allusion to these singular manifestations is 
foreign to our purpose. My object is wholly utilitarian. And 
my endeavor has been to prove, by a copious body of statistics, 
that there is a state into which the human frame can be placed, 
from whence the most powerfully remedial results may be ob- 
tained, even in cases of extremesi suffering. 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 59 



CHAPTER IV. 

And what is the reply of certain medical men, who presume 
eat cathedra to give an opinion on the subject without condescend- 
ing to look into it, — what, we demand, is their reply to the repre- 
sentation of this state 1 Simply, that it is impossible ; the thing, 
they say, is in itself impossible ; — and consequently that no further 
investigation is requisite for the student. To say that facts are 
extraordinary, — are difficult to conceive, — are contrary to previous 
experience, is but the duty of a philosopher, who should suspend 
his belief, till every reasonable doubt be done away. But to begin 
with asserting, that a thing is impossible, — and that it is contrary 
to the laws of nature, because it differs from our early opinions, 
is irrational in the extreme, and eminently absurd in days like our 
own, when every year we see things accomplished, which in our 
youth were deemed impracticable. The real question is, — what 
are the lams of nature? Are they all known and established? 
But inasmuch as to set limits in this way to the operations of 
nature, and call a thing which is occurring every hour " impossi- 
ble," is not quite satisfactory to the philosophic inquirer, a few 
ingenious theories are propounded by the faculty to silence the 
unreasonable questionings of the " impertinently curious." 

One gentleman will tell you, that " Monotony" is the secret. 
The constant movement of the hands before the face,* — a con- 
tinued friction by passes down the arm, has, they say, such a dull 
deadening effect, that the mere monotony of the action induces 
somnolency. All this is granted : many a restless invalid has 
been lulled into slumber by some such soothing process. The 
tickling of a feather, or the reading of a dull book in a drowsy 
tone for a prolonged period, will often persuade to sleep. But this 
explanation will not meet the difficulty. It applies but to a few 
isolated instances. And first we ask, how many times would this 
experiment answer in the case of a feverish patient ? For days ? 
for weeks ? for months ? A daily repetition of the trial would, I 
fear, soon break the charm. Not so with Mesmerism. The mes- 
meric sleep is obtained only the more easily and more quickly at 
each renewal of the process. But with some patients, these mo- 
notonous movements, made by parties unskilled in Mesmerism, 



• " To the waving motion of the hands, in what are termed the * passes, 9 1 
attribute all the phenomena which animal magnetism is said to induce iu 
patients who submit to this mummery." — Unity of DUtase, by Dr. Dickson, 
*91. 



60 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

not only do not soothe, but have even an irritating effect; — to 
whom, however, the Mesmeric action, applied in a judicious way, 
succeeds at once. I can speak to this point from my own ex- 
perience. But this is not all. Many Mesmerisers scarcely use 
monotonous movements at all. The mutual contact of the thumbs, 
the application of the points of the fingers near the eyes, the 
pressure of the hand upon the crown of the head, are the plans 
that I have seen most usually adopted, and which I have found 
most successful myself. Often and often have I. seen patients in 
a state of cerebral excitement put to sleep in two, in three, in four 
minutes, by the contact of the balls of the thumbs. A lady has 
told me that ofttimes from the moment her thumb touched the 
thumb of the Mesmeriser, a leaden weight has settled on her eye- 
lids, making resistance to sleep impossible, — and this in a case 
where every other soporific method had been worse than idle. 
No : monotony will not explain the difficulty. In fact, so little has 
monotony to do with the effect, that none but those who have seen 
little or nothing of Mesmeric action could invent this theory for 
its solution. 

Driven from this post, our opponents next establish themselves 
behind the entrenchments of " hysteria." This is the explanation, 
that is for ever being advanced in anti-mesmeric works and lec- 
tures at the hospitals ; and I think it more especially worthy of 
answer, as I have heard it made by some able and enlightened 
friends. The patient, they say, is " highly nervous and excitable ; 
it is simply an hysteric action, — nothing else." Now there is 
much plausibility in this representation. Its vagueness catches 
the ear. The undefined character of the word " nervousness" in- 
cludes almost everything in common parlance. Merely say, that 
a patient is nervous, and all difficulties are removed. But we must 
pin our philosophic friends down to something more specific. 
These loose generalities carry no meaning in them. And first we 
would observe, that it is not nervous patients, who are always the 
most susceptible to Mesmeric action. The idea is convenient ; 
but the fact is often the reverse. Stout strong-minded men have 
been mesmerised ; and I have seen patients who were termed 
" highly nervous" resist the influence altogether. But let us 
analyse this explanation more closely. What is hysteria ? Is it 
hysteria, when a pin is forced into a delicate female's hand, far 
enough to draw blood, and she feels no pain, and exhibits no 
change of expression ? Is it hysteria, when a brute strikes a 
sleeping boy a violent blow with a walking-stick, and no move- 
ment or consciousness results from it ? Is it hysteria, where ex- 
citement and strong cerebral irritation are soothed and calmed 
down into tranquillity and repose ? Is it hysteria, when intolera- 
ble heat and throbbing in the head are carried off and leave not a 
vestige ? Is it hysteria, when racking torturing pain is relieved 
or completely taken away ? And all these effects not happening 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 61 

once and accidentally, but over and over and over again ? Ac- 
cording to common experience, these effects would rather result 
from hysteric action than be removed by it ; and certainly it is a 
novel doctrine, when we are taught, that an abatement in feverish 
or cerebral irritability is the product of hysteria. However, — it 
is now said, that all these states are the effect of hysteria. Hys- 
teria includes everything. Whatever may be the condition of the 
human body, — be it unusual repose or unusual excitement, — be it 
exquisite sensibility to pain, or an utter unconsciousness of its pre- 
sence, hysteria is the cause. Be it so. And how much nearer 
are we now towards resolving the difficulty? For again I ask, 
what is hysteria ? Do the medical men know themselves ? Can 
they explain it ? Can they say what are its causes, proximate or 
remote ? Are they not confessedly in the dark on the subject ? 
To explain Mesmerism, therefore, by hysteria, is but to exchange 
one difficulty for another. It is but a shifting of position, not an 
approximation towards the truth. It is a moving of the feet, not 
a marching forwards. With far greater judgment did one of the 
most superior and rising members of the profession observe to me, 
that " Mesmerism, if true, rather threw a light on hysteria, than 
hysteria on Mesmerism." It would rather lead them, he said, to 
a solution of their very difficulties on that question. But be this 
as it may, to explain one difficulty by another is a most unphilo- 
sophical proceeding, — and one through which no approach what- 
ever is made to an illustration of the truth. But on the other 
hand, if Mesmeric action be nothing but hysteria, — as perhaps it 
is, — then we assert, that hysteria, when produced artificially and 
intentionally, ceases to be a disease, — but becomes a condition 
full of medicinal and healing virtue, — as the inexhaustible cata- 
logue of cures accomplished by its power incontrovertibly proves. 
" Imitation" is a favorite explanation with others : — and cer- 
tainly imitation is a key which interprets many facts in the science. 
Imitation is one of the most powerful agents for working on the 
human mind ; — much that is good or wicked in human conduct is 
the result of imitation alone ; — and it may be a curious study for 
the physiologist to trace the secret springs of imitation to their 
native source. But though imitation may explain many parts in 
the conduct of a Mesmeric patient, — it goes but a small way. 
How can we explain this fact, that young and artless girls, — the 
deaf, the dumb, — the blind, — patients who had never heard of 
Mesmerism, — who knew not what process was going to take place, 
have all equally exhibited the same class of phenomena ? Imita- 
tion is often used, too, for a synonym of Imposture. But when 
employed in this sense, it assumes that the capabilities of the hu- 
man mind are great indeed, and that the histrionic talent is far 
more common than is suspected. The lovers of the drama com- 
plain that the days of tragic and comic excellence are departed, 
and that not an actor remains to tread the stage. Unfounded re- 



62 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS, 

gret ! If tfie charges of our opponents be correct, and imitation 
(or imposture) be the clue to Mesmerism, then indeed actors and 
actresses of the highest talent abound in every district, — artists, 
before whom the genius of a Garrick would grow pale, are making 
the circuit of the country in every direction, — and the art of Ros- 
cius is now at its zenith. I have seen ignorant, uneducated, sim- 
ple persons transformed by the touch of the Mesmeriser into the 
most finished performers. Yes, — if imitation (or imposture) be 
the solution, then is a greater wonder established than the sup- 
posed discoveries of Mesmer, — and the histrionic powers of the 
human mind proved to be something beyond the range of old ex- 
perience. Either way, " the laws of nature" must be remodelled ; 
- — old systems are not sufficient ; for, mentally or physically, a new 
and wondrous power has been detected, — which henceforward 
must find a place amidst the schemes and divisions of the philoso- 
pher and metaphysician. 

Faith or confidence, in the power, and a desire to be healed by 
the process of Mesmerism, are again suggested by others as a 
cause to which we may ascribe some of the cures of which we 
have spoken. On this theory, how are we to explain those 
instances, where the patient had a positive aversion to the prac- 
tice ; where, so far from the existence of faith, disgust and dis- 
belief were the strong predominant feelings ; and where the re- 
medy was adopted almost by compulsion, and yet the cure and 
the benefits have been most marked and unequivocal ? Here I 
can again come forward with my testimony. 

Again, therefore, is a fresh interpretation needed, and all is re- 
solved by another party into the large, the comprehensive phrase 
of " Imagination." Truly has it been observed, that this refer- 
ence of all these difficulties to the influence of imagination is but 
" a cloak to cover ignorance." That imagination has a most 
powerful effect on the habit of the body, we all know. Numerous 
striking events can be clearly traced to it. It is a valuable, a use- 
ful auxiliary. None but an idiot would deny its power. Still, 
imagination, with all its vehement effects, has a limit. There is 
a time when its influence wears off. An invalid often " imagines" 
that a new medical adviser has been of service, that a change of 
medicine has done good, that a different treatment has been bene- 
ficial ; and repeatedly has a healthier action been brought about 
by this power of the mind upon the nervous system. But much 
too generally the spell is dissolved at an early day. Before the 
tedious week shall have run its round, a relapse has occurred, 
and the benefit is forgotten. Not so, again we say. with Mes- 
merism. The longer it is tried, the more powerful is the hold. 
A patient may be sent to sleep by imagination two or three days 
in succession ; but would the same method succeed day after dajr 
for several months ? Here is a point on which I can speak with 
confidence. The process, which was comparatively feeble in its 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 63 

effect upon a patient in my family during the first week is now, 
at nearly the expiration of a year, more efficacious than ever. 
Look again to its influence on pain. We hear at times of pain 
disappearing suddenly through some operation of the mind. An 
individual, suffering from a raging toothache, has been known to 
walk to a dentist's door, when the simple ringing of the bell has 
so wrought on his system as to stop the pain and change the con- 
dition of his body. But who believes that this power of the mind 
would be continuous ? Who supposes that the daily experiment 
of a walk to the operator's house would suspend the agony, if the 
pain recurred every morning ? The unlucky tooth would in the 
end require extraction. Not so with Mesmerism. Pain is re- 
moved only the more speedily by a repetition of the manipula- 
tions. The oftener they are tried, the quicker are their effects. 
The notion of "imagination" will not, therefore, get rid of the 
difficulty. It is a convenient mode of explanation, and a courte- 
ous ; when, in reality, the insolent charge of fraud is really meant, 
and is the only alternative. Either certain facts are true, or they 
are false ; for the mind has nothing to do with them. Is it ima- 
gination when the hand of the sleeper follows the hand of the 
mesmeriser ? Is it imagination when the touch of any one but 
the mesmeriser throws the sleeper into extreme and convulsive 
agitation ? Is it imagination when the sleeper hears no other 
voice but that of the mesmeriser ? Is it imagination when what 
the mesmeriser tastes is recognized by the sleeper, be it bitter or 
eweet, or water or wine ? These questions might be multiplied 
indefinitely ; but here are sufficient : and what is the answer ? 
Wo reply, that there is a physical impossibility that the mind, 
according to what we understand by that term, should have any- 
thing to do with such effects. The sleeper is fast asleep, and 
knows nothing of them. Either they are the result of some newly- 
discovered power on the nervous system, or patients, as honorable 
and virtuous as the opponents themselves, are assuming an appear- 
ance for which they have no earthly inducement. " Imagina- 
tion," in the usual acceptation of the word, can afford no explana- 
tion to these phenomena in any way whatever. 

A few other facts may be stated on this point. Children are 
eften easily magnetised. Foissac mentions the case of a child, 
aged twenty-eight months, that he placed in somnambulism. 
Deaf and dumb parsons, and some that were blind, have been 
thrown into this sleep, without being aware at the time of what 
was intended or what was going on. Animals have been power- 
fully affected. Dr. Wilson's experiments on the brute creation 
are most conclusive. Several sceptics, and those men of power- 
ful intellect, have been mesmerised. Mr. Townshend, in his 
14 Facts," gives some remarkable instances of what took place at 
Cambridge with some unbelieving adversaries. Professor Agas- 
»iz, of Neufchatcl, in Switzerland, was put to sleep by Mr. 



$4 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

Townshend, according to his own statement, after he had done 
everything in his power to resist the influence. But there is one 
point more decisive than any we have just mentioned, and which, 
as Colquhoun states, is well known to all practical mesmerisers, 
viz., " that if we attempt to manipulate in contrary directions, the 
usual effects will not be produced, whilst others of a totally differ- 
ent nature will be manifested." In short, of all the explanations 
that have been offered, the least tenable is that of " imagination." 
Still, what is in a name ? If the phrase be more acceptable than 
that of Mesmerism, let it be adopted. All we ask and want is, 
that the system itself be not neglected. " If imagination," says 
Mr. Chenevix, " can cure diseases, then cure by imagination, and 
the sick will bless you." We have no wish to supersede the 
labors of the faculty in their important department: what is 
rather desired is, that the treatment of the mesmeric process 
should be under their direction and control, as is the case in many 
countries on the Continent. In Russia, in Denmark, in Prussia, 
none but medical men, or those under their superintendence, are 
permitted to exercise the art. Let, then, the profession take the 
practice up, and we will sacrifice the name. Let " Imagination n 
be placed on the pharmacopoeia ; let " Imagination " be written oik 
their prescriptions ; let the students at the hospitals be instructed, 
how to exert the ideal faculty : only, as Dugald Stewart so sensi- 
bly observes, let them not " scruple to copy whatever processes 
are necessary for subjecting diseases to their command." Let 
them not culpably refuse to increase the resources of their art ; 
and I, for one, would gladly consent that the management of this 
mighty agent should be left mainly in their hands, and that the 
name of Mesmerism should be discarded and forgotten !* 

But our concessions and explanations fall unheeded on the ear. 
The grand coup de theatre yet remains; " Mesmerise me, and I 
will believe you." Often have I heard the most conclusive an- 
swers presented to these objectors; every misconception has been 
disposed of by argument, by facts, by analogy, when the unbeliever 
suddenly escapes from the controversy by a demand that the 
experiment be tried upon himself. And if, as is almost certain, 
the experiment fail, the question he considers as finally settled. 
I was attending a Mesmeric lecture one day, when a gentleman 
present sat down on the chair, and requested the lecturer to try 
his skill upon him. The usual manipulations went on for a cer- 

* Let us note what M. Bertrand, a physician himself, says : " II est de 
toute evidence que si les savans et les medecins veulent guider et faire tour- 
ner au profit de Fhumanite et des sciences la nouvelle decouverte qu'on leut 
announce, il faut qu'ils commencent par s'en emparer. A quel titre vou- 
dront-ils la juger, s'ils sont convaincus de ne pas la connaitre ? ^ Et n'est-ce 
pas une chose honteuse pour ceux qui s'occupent de Part de guerir, de voir 
Us magnetiseurs les plus ignorans se montrer plus inslruits qu'eux sur un grand 
nombre de phenomenes qui appartient a la connaissance de rhomme ma- 
lade V 9 — Bertrand, Traite du Somnambulisme, p. 431. 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 65 

tain period ; much interest was felt by the spectators ; when after 
a given time our unsusceptible gentleman rose up, looked round 
the room with a triumphant smirk of self-satisfaction, declaring 
that he " felt nothing," and then left the company with the air of 
a philosopher who had refuted the claims of Mesmerism once and 
for ever ) and this is called experiment ! as if certain conditions 
were not indispensable. What all those conditions are, we are 
not prepared to show ; but common sense might surely teach us, 
that some conditions were at least required. In chemical experi- 
ments on impassive material substances certain conditions are de- 
manded ; how much more so, on the delicate human frame, where 
the mind can in addition offer a resistance, and the party himself 
strain his utmost to reject the sleep ? Those who have been 
present at lectures on Galvanism or Chemistry must have observ- 
ed how slight a cause will disturb the simplest experiment. A 
change of atmosphere will affect the machinery and spoil the elec- 
tric action in a moment. If a conductor be overcharged, a result 
different from the one expected will be evolved. If a body be 
saturated with any ingredient that it holds in solution, the effect 
will not be the same, as when the substances are united in more 
congenial proportions. In some experiments, the presence of a 
small quantity of water appears always necessary to develope cer- 
tain acid properties. And thus we might go on ad infinitum. 
And why are not similar laws equally applicable in the practice of 
Mesmerism 1 And why is it that the parties, who, more than any 
others, know the necessity of such conditions in regard to natural 
philosophy, are the very men who dispense with their presence 
in the analogous experiments on the human frame. My own opi- 
nion on the subject, after much observation, is, that sick and deli- 
cate persons are more susceptible of the magnetic influence than 
those in robust health. Not but what cases can be produced, 
where the healthiest individuals have been readily Mesmerised, 
and the delicate invalid remained unaffected : but these are the 
exceptions rather than the rule. Where there is any unequal ac- 
tion, any irregularity in the system, any improper or feeble circu- 
lation, any extreme or overwrought activity of the cerebral or ner- 
vous temperament, there the Mesmeric influence seems to pro- 
duce an effect. Its tendency appears to be to restore the equilibri- 
um of a disturbed or irregular distribution of the nervous power. 
Such an irregularity may exist, unknown and unsuspected, in the 
system of a robust man, and explain his readier susceptibility to 
the equalizing power ; while a more delicate patient, from the ab- 
sence of some other condition, which is equally necessary, may 
resist the influence altogether, although the general state of his or- 
ganization and temperament might, but for this one and unknown 
circumstance, have rendered him peculiarly alive to the magnetic 
force. However, all this is but conjecture, and touches not the 
truthfulness of the facts recorded. It ought, moreover, to be add- 
5 



66 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS, 

ed, that sleep is not the only or a necessary symptom. Great ef- 
fects may result, and no sleep take place. Sleep is only one out 
of many symptoms, though of course the most general and intelligi- 
ble. Among the other conditions, a physical sympathy between 
the parties seems the first requisite ; what that sympathy may be, 
is a difficult question ; but it is a known fact, that a patient yields 
to the influence of one Mesmeriser rather than another.* A supe- 
rior state of health, or of muscular energy, or of mental power, on 
the part of the Mesmeriser over the patient, seems another condi- 
tion ; and yet this is by no means invariable or without excep- 
tions. Again, it should be borne in mind, that an apparent exter- 
nal effect is not always to be expected at the first sitting. Sleep 
may not be produced for a week, for a month, for three months ; 
but it may come at last, and a cure be effected. In the case of 
individuals in good health, it is especially less probable that som- 
nolency should come on at the first trial ; and, in fact, few things 
are more ridiculous or misplaced than the exhibition of a vigorous 
muscular man offering himself to the manipulations of the Mes- 
meriser. Would the loss of the same quantity of blood, or the ad- 
ministration of the same amount of medicine, have the same or 
equal effect on two opposite constitutions or habits of body ? The 
abstraction often ounces of blood might hardly be felt by a strong 
athletic yeoman, while the depletion would be far too reducing 
for his feeble attenuated daughter. One man has been known to 
swallow with impunity more than twenty of Morison's drastic 
pills ; while two of the same precious preparation have induced a 
distressing and painful result upon his apparently healthier and 
more enduring brother. And why is there this difference ? sim- 
ply, because men's constitutions are different. And is Mesmer- 



* The best practical writer on this subject is Deleuze : his experience has 
been great. I refer my readers to what he says on this point, as to a safe 
authority : — " Tous les hommes ne sont pas sensibles a Faction magnetique, 
et les memes le sont plus ou moins, selon les dispositions momentanees dans 
lesquelles il se trouvent. Ordinairement le magnetisme n'exerce aucune 
action sur les personnes qui jouissent d'une sante parfaite. Le meme homme 
qui etait insensible au magnetisme dans Petat de sante, en eprouvera des 
effets lorsqu'il sera malade. II est telle maladie dans laquelle Paction du 
magnetisme ne se fait point apercevoir ; telle autre sur laquelle cette action 
est evidente. On tfcn saitpas encore assezpour determine?' la cause de ces ano- 
malies, ni pour prononcer a l'avance si le magnetisme agira ou n'agira pas ; 
on a seulement quelques probability a cet egard ; mais cela ne saurait 
motiver une objection contre la realite du magnetisme, attendu que les trois 
quarts des malades au moins en resentent les effets. 

" La nature a etabli un rapport ou une sympathie physique entre quelques 
individus; c'est par cette raisonne que plusieurs magnetiseurs agissent beau- 
coup plus promptement et plus efficacement sur certains malades que sur 
d'autres, et que le meme magnetiseur ne convient pas egalement a tous les 
malades. II y a meme des magnetiseurs qui sont plus propres a guerir cer- 
taines maladies. Plusieurs personnes se croient insensibles a Faction du 
magnetisme, parce qu'elles n'ont pas rencontre le magnetiseur qui leur con- 
vient." — Deleuze, Instruction Pratique, cap. i., sect. 21, 22. 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 67 

ism to be an exception to this general rule ? Be the party Mes- 
merised delicate or robust, the same Mesmeriser only throws off 
a certain amount of Mesmeric influence (whether through the me- 
dium of some electric fluid we know not), and why, therefore, 
should the same effect be expected in these opposite conditions 
within the same period of time ? however, upon this point we are 
as yet in the dark. The above observations are rather meant as 
hints and suggestions for others. And though the question is not 
one quarter exhausted, enough has been said to show the unrea- 
sonableness and absurdity of those who demand an immediate 
effect on themselves as a test of this power. What I always 
reply to medical men, who request to be placed under the 
process, is, "Do not ask to be Mesmerised yourself ; go and 
Mesmerise your patients, and depend upon it, that you will not 
only accomplish much benefit, but you will soon have a proof of 
the truth of my words." But far better would it be to quote the 
language of Bacon in his Essay on Seeming Wise. " It is a ri- 
diculous thing," says he, " and fit for a satire of judgment, to see 
what shifts men have Some think to bear it by speak- 
ing a great word, and being peremptory, and go on and take by 
admittance that which they cannot make good. Some, whatever 
is beyond their reach will seem to despise, or make light of it, as 
impertinent or curious, and so would have their ignorance seem 
judgment." 

Here, then, is the position on which I take my stand, and to 
which I respectfully invite the consideration of the scientific 
world, that be the exciting or immediate cause, imitation, monoto- 
ny, hysteria, imagination, or so forth, this accumulation of evi- 
dence, out of Germany, out of France, out of England, and many 
other countries, proves beyond a doubt, that a strong curative 
effect in a certain class of diseases can be produced by what is 
called Mesmerism, so strong indeed, that the physician and the 
philanthropist are alike bound, for the sake of humanity alone, to 
give the subject the fullest and fairest trial. 

But, says the " Christian Observer," all further investigation is 
needless, for the French commissioners have long ago decided the 
question. "Their report," it adds, "was full, candid, elaborate, 
and satisfactory." And the " commissioners proved that no mag- 
netic influence was evolved," and that " Mesmer stood convicted 
of being a conscious impostor." 

Often as this statement has been rebutted, it is still necessary 
to go over the ground again. For not only must such a repre- 
sentation have its (licet, but there is, moreover, a general impres- 
sion afloat, that the decision of the French savans has been ad- 
verse to our system. 

The Reviewer says, — " We are not aware whether the report 
of the commissioner^ li;»s been reprinted, since; the rovivaZ of these 
follies." And from the manner in which he treats the question, it 



8$ MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS'. 

may be doubted, whether he has read the report himself, and fra© 
not taken his opinion, second hand, from some careless or preju- 
diced writers. At any rate I have read the report. I went last 
autumn to the British Museum, and read it carefully and analyti- 
cally through. And the attention of my readers is requested, not 
only to the real representation as to how far that report goes, but 
also to the important resolutions of a second and far more valuable 
commission. 

It may, perhaps, be desirable that this statement be preceded 
by a slight sketch of Mesmer and of the proceedings of his oppo- 
nents. 

Animal Magnetism, it is generally supposed, has been always 
more or less practised by a select class, who, through some 
means or other, had arrived at the discovery. Many names 
could be mentioned under this head'. But be this as it may, it 
was about 1776, that Anthony Mesmer, a native- of Switzerland, 
and a physician and resident of Vienna, who had been for some 
time making use of the common magnet in his medical practice, 
perceived that he was able to produce a variety of phenomena of 
a very peculiar character without the magnet at all, and by the in- 
fluence of some power proceeding from his own body. Repeated 
experiments confirmed him in this opinion : he applied this new 
treatment extensively among the sick ; great success attended 
him ; and his name became notorious. He now removed to 
Paris, as to a wider theatre for his labors. After a time consider- 
able progress was made by him there in the dissemination of his 
views ; patients of all ranks flocked to his house ; he began to ac- 
cumulate a large fortune ; and the French government even offer- 
ed a very handsome pecuniary remuneration for the communica- 
tion of his secret. 

Not satisfied with his success, Mesmer must needs put forth a 
theory. He contended that there was a subtle fluid pervading the 
whole universe, which was capable of being put into motion, and 
through which the most powerful effects could be obtained. He 
went at great length into an examination of this theory, on which 
it is now needless to dwell. But it is important to add that this 
theory was an essential part of his system, that he pressed it 
strongly upon the attention of the learned ; and that this assumed 
subtle matter he designated by the name of the magnetic fluid, and 
his treatment of his patients he called Animal Magnetism. 

But this was not all. His enemies say that Mesmer was not 
a really philosophic inquirer. Truth, for its own sake, and for 
the good of his species, was not his single aim. According to 
their statement, he invested his practice with a dramatic and un- 
real character ; he assumed a mysterious demeanor, clothed his 
experiments with a magical obscurity, assumed a masquerading 
costume, and was as much of the charlatan as of the scientific 
discoverer. All this, however, is as strongly denied by his parti- 
sans and followers. 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 69 

These proceedings, however, attracted the attention of the wits 
at Paris. His medical brethren were in an uproar: the public 
journals attacked him ; — the philosophers were disgusted ; and 
few besides the sick were on his side. Yet Mesmer grew bolder 
and bolder : he asserted that " there is but one health, one disease, 
— and one remedy ;" and this remedy, he said, was alone to be 
obtained through his magnetic subtle fluid. 

Government at length took the subject up. The amiable and 
unfortunate Louis the Sixteenth issued a mandate in 1784, requir- 
ing a commission to investigate the matter. The commissioners 
appointed were some of them members of the Academy of Sciences, 
some of the medical faculty, and others of the Society of Physi- 
cians, and contained in their number a few remarkable names. 
Among them were Lavoisier, who might almost be called the 
father of modern chemistry ; Baiily, whose subsequent fate in the 
French Revolution was so memorable and melancholy; Guillotin, 
who in the same revolution obtained such an unfortunate distinc- 
tion from his recommendation of that slaughterous engine which 
was called after his name ; Jussieu, the illustrious botanist ; and, 
lastly, that great statesman-philosopher of the other hemisphere, 
to whom has been so happily applied the line of the poet, 

" Eripuit coelo fulmen, sceptrumque tyrannis." 

Of course, to men like these, to say nothing of the other able 
names that were included in the commission, the profoundest de- 
ference is due. Though authority cannot overthrow facts, yet still 
authority is to be heard with grave attention in a report on those 
facts ; — and here the question is, how far these commissioners 
have decided, or intended to decide, against the facts of Mesmer- 
ism, — and how far their opinion goes in subverting the reality of 
the cures effected by its power. 

The answer is, that they decided nothing on the subject ; the 
facts they have left untouched ; the cures in great measure unde- 
nied ; their main drift and aim was against the theory. 

It has been said, — in opposition to one of the statements of the 
" Christian Observer" in regard to the " candid" manner of their 
inquiries, — that the commissioners behaved most unfairly, — that 
their examination was incomplete and superficial, — and that they 
took but small trouble to observe. All this I cannot bring myself 
to believe ; their names arc a guarantee against any such imputa- 
tions. Men like Baiily and his colleagues must have intended all 
that was fair and candid. But that their examination was " full or 
satisfactory," I deny. That they entered upon the subject with 
strongly-formed prejudices is well known. Their experiments 
were not continuous enough, — were not followed up closely by 
the same parties, and were not conducted in compliance with the 
rules required for their success ; and with Lavoisier, the great 
chemical philosopher at their head, their object was to detect the 



70 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

presence of Mesmer's subtle fluid, and failing in that, they con- 
sidered the real labors of the commission virtually at an end. 

The idea of " utility" was not lost upon them ; and one might 
have thought that such a view of the question would have interest- 
ed Franklin, and secured a careful investigation. " Le Magne- 
tisme Animal," says the Report, " peut bien exister sans etre utile, 
mais il ne peut etre utile, s'il n'existe pas." But the fact is, 
Franklin was not in good health at the time ; and from the lan- 
guage of the Report, it would appear almost certain that he was 
not present at Paris during any of the experiments. The com- 
missioners all went one day to his house at Passy ; there a few 
experiments were made ; there he himself was magnetised, and 
felt no sensation; and this imperfect examination and personal 
trial seems to have satisfied him. He signed the report ; and his 
name therefore is always quoted as an authority on the subject ; 
but the world must judge how far the opinion of a man, whose 
energies and bodily activity were at that time in abeyance, can 
legitimately be claimed as decisive, especially after so brief and 
unsatisfactory an inquiry. 

But the other commissioners, though, doubtless, all in good faith, 
omitted, in their experiments, many conditions, which they were 
told were indispensable. They were not steady in their attend 
ance ; and the experiments, moreover, were not conducted in the 
presence or under the superintendence of Mesmer himself, — but 
of one of his pupils (D'Eslon), who afterwards protested against 
their reports (for there was more than one) as incorrect and un- 
satisfactory. 

And what did these reports at length declare ? Did they deny 
the facts ? Rather they established their reality. They say that, 
having ascertained that this animal fluid cannot be perceived by 
any of our senses (les commissaires ayant reconnu que ce fluide 
magnetique animal ne peut etre apercu par aucun de nos sens), 
they came to the conclusion that nothing proves th.3 existence of 
this magnetic animal fluid ; — that, therefore, not being in existence, 
it eannot be useful ; — que rien ne prouve 1'existence du fluide 
magnetique animal ; que ce fluide, sans existence, est par conse- 
quent sans utilite, &c.) ; and, consequently, they decided that 
some other theory must be brought forward to account for the facts 
(les efTets). 

The existence of many of these facts they acknowledge ; they 
describe some of the most important phenomena ; they mention 
many singular convulsions, involuntary movements, and sympathies 
(rien n'est plus etonnant que le spectacle de ces convulsions . . . 
des sympathies qui s'etablissent. — Rapport de Bailly) : but Mes- 
mer's theory they consider null and void ; — and declare that the 
reality of the fluid could only be proved by its curative effects ; as 
if those curative effects were not, after all, the most essential 
point towards which the commissioners could look (son existence 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 71 

ne peut etre demontree que par les effets curatifs dans le traite- 
ment des maladies). 

And what is the theory they offer in opposition 1 " Imagina- 
tion," " Imitation," and " Touch ;" — these they asserted were the 
causes of all that occurred. (De ces experiences, les commis- 
saircs ont conclu que l'imagination fait tout, que le magnetisme est 
nul. Imagination, imitation, attouchement, telles sont les vraies 
causes des effets attribues au Magnetisme Animal.) 

It is unnecessary to enter upon a refutation of their hypothesis ; 
— all the commissioners attempted, was to pull down one theory, 
and build up another ; — and this their Report, inconclusive, un- 
satisfactory, — and, if we may so speak of such men, unphiloso- 
phical in the extreme, — is declared by the Christian Observer, 
and other writers, to be decisive of the question, and as having 
convicted Mesmer of being a conscious impostor. 

But, inconclusive even as the Report was, there is yet a more 
noticeable shortcoming. One great name is wanting to the sig- 
natures. The virtuous and intelligent Jussieu, — he who in the 
study of botany is an authority of the first rank, — paid the closest 
attention to the proceedings ; and, " notwithstanding the pressing 
solicitation of his colleagues, and the menaces of the minister, 
the Baron de Breteuil," refused to subscribe his name, and actually 
drew up a special Report of his own. In that Report he states 
that the " experiments he has himself made, and those of which 
he has been a witness, convince him that man produces upon man 
a decided action by friction (frottement), by contact, and, more 
rarely, by an approximation at a little distance : — that this action 
seems to belong to some animal warmth existing in the body ; — 
and that judged by its effects, it occasionally partakes of a tonic and 
salutary result ; — but that a more extended acquaintance with this 
1 agent'' will make us better understand its real action and utility."* 

Here then is a significant fact in the history of this science, 
which ought to have arrested the conclusions of the faculty. But 
Jussieu's counter-statements were laughed at and set aside. It 
was everywhere reported that the commissioners had put the mat- 
ter to rest ; and that large body of the public who never think for 



* " Que les experiences qu'il afaites, et dont il aete temoin, prouvent que 
l'liomme produit sur son semblable une action sensible par le frottement, par 
le contact, et plus rarernent par un simple rapprochement a quelque distance ; 
que cette action, attribute a une fluide universelle non demontree, lui sem- 
ble appartenir a la chaleur animate existante dans les corps ; que cette cha- 
leur tmane d'eux continuellement, se porte a- sez loin, et peut passer d'un 
corps dans un autre; qu'elle est dcveloppee, augmentee, ou diminuee dam 
un corps par des causes morales et par des causes physiques; que, jugee par 
des eilets, elle participede la propriete des remedes toniques, et produit com- 
me eux des effets salutaires ou nuisibles, selon la quantite de chaleur com- 
muniquee, et selon les circonstances ou elle est employee; qu'enfin un usage 
plus etendu et plus reflcchj de cet agent fera mieux coniuutre sa veritable 
action et son d6gr6 d'utilite." — P. 50. 



72 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS, 

themselves, or care to distinguish, assumed that the refutation of 
the theory was a refutation of the facts ; and so Animal Magne- 
tism was considered as extinguished and buried for ever. While 
the stirring scenes of the approaching Revolution, and its sad and 
tragical horrors, and still more the wonders of Napoleon's reign, 
so diverted men's minds from the subject, that to the great mass of 
the French people the existence of Mesmerism was a forgotten 
fact in history. 

But truth is eternal, and the triumph of its enemies but short- 
lived and inglorious. Though a passing cloud may overshadow 
it, and appear to darken the prospect hopelessly, it is only that it 
may shine forth with greater brightness than ever. As one of our 
most glowing writers says of certain favorite principles, " Though 
they fall, it is but to rebound ; — though they recede, it is but to 
spring forward with greater elasticity; though they perish, there 
are the seeds of vitality in their very decay ;" — and so it is with 
truth and with the facts of Mesmerism. This exploded science 
" lived on," — " brokenly," indeed, as the poet says, — and " show- 
ing no visible sign" of existence ; — still it " lived on," — and after 
a time gradually began to increase, and then to flourish, and at last 
to lift up its head only higher than before. The " crushing report" 
of the commissioners had not killed it. Numbers of able and 
learned men still adhered pertinaciously to its cause. Schools 
were formed, — societies established for its promotion. The Mar- 
quis de Puysegur, a gallant soldier, devoted his whole soul and 
time to the treatment. His success was immense. The cures 
performed by him were numerous. In Germany, in France, more 
especially at Strasburg and Paris, the subject was taken up with 
as great zeal as previously ; and what is more to the purpose, 
with a judgment and sober consideration, and an utter absence of 
all charlatanerie and mystery. 

So signal was the progress, that a decided sensation was now 
made on the medical world. A young physician at Paris, the 
amiable and learned Foissac, made a stirring appeal to his breth- 
ren in its behalf. In 1825, he addressed a memorial to the mem- 
bers of the Royal Academy of Medicine, pointing out the neces- 
sity of a fresh and more satisfactory inquiry. Without entering 
upon the details, let it be sufficient to state, that a Second Com- 
mission was appointed ; that this commission consisted exclusively 
of medical men, some of them of very high standing in their pro- 
fession ; — that a most careful and scientific investigation took 
place ; — and that in 1831 a Report on their Magnetic Experiments 
was laid before the Academy. And what was the nature of this 
Report 1 Was it evasive, cold, neutral, condemnatory ? It was 
satisfactory and decisive in the highest degree. After having 
given a most interesting and circumstantial account of their pro- 
ceedings, they finish with a series of conclusions, to which they 
had arrived : they are thirty in number, and ought to be read, as 



Mesmerism and its opponents. 73 

well as the Report itself, by every one interested in the subject ; 
space can only be afforded for a few extracts, but these are deci- 
sive enough. They say : — 

8. A certain number of the effects observed appeared to us to 
depend upon Magnetism alone, and were never produced tvith- 
out its application. These are well established physiologi- 
cal and therapeutic phenomena. 
29. Considered as a cause of certain physiological phenomena, 
or as a therapeutic remedy, Magnetism ought to he allowed a 
place within the circle of the medical sciences ; and, conse- 
quently, physicians only should practise it, or superintend 
its use, as is the case in the northern countries.* 
And they conclude with saying : " We dare not flatter ourselves 
with the hope of making you participate entirely in our conviction 
of the reality of the phenomena which we have observed, and 
which you have neither seen, nor followed, nor studied along 
with us. We do not, therefore, demand of you a blind belief of 
all that we have reported. We conceive that a great proportion of 
these facts are of a nature so extraordinary, that you cannot accord 
them such a credence. . . . We only request that you would 
judge us as we should judge you, that is to say, that you be com- 
pletely convinced, that neither the love of the marvellous, nor the 
desire of celebrity, nor any views of interest whatever, influenced 
us during our labors." 

This Report was signed by nine physicians. The two who 
did not sign did not consider themselves entitled to do so, from 
not having assisted at the experiments. The Report was laid 
before the Academy, who resolved that manuscript copies should 
be taken of it (faire autographier le Rapport). To this no objec- 
tion was made : and the adversaries of Mesmerism resigned 
themselves, as far as the Academy was concerned, to an absolute 
silence on the subject. And from that hour, Mesmerism has 
been gaining ground in France, with such an impetus, that, as 
I before stated on very excellent authority, a fourth of the medical 
men in Paris are staunch upholders of the science. 

" But," says the Christian Observer, with a pertinacity worthy 
of a better cause, " if the French Commissioners have not decided 
the question, Mr. Wakley has." " Mr. Wakley laid bare some of 
the impositions to the conviction of unprejudiced observers." 
" The wary coroner quietly slipped the wonder-working talisman 



* 8. Un certain nombre des efTets observes nous ont parus dependre du 
masnetisine scul, et ne se sont pas reproduit sans lui. Ce sont des pheno- 
menes physiologiques et th^rapeutiques bien constates. 

29. Considere comme agent de phenomenes physiolo^iques, ou comme 
moyen the rapeutique, le magnetisme devrait trouver sa place dans le cadre 
des connoissances medicales; et par consequent les rm'.decins seuls devraient 
en faire ou en surveillcr l'emploi, ainsi que cela se pratique dans les pays du 
nord. — Foissac, Rapports, p. 205. 



74 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

(a piece of nickel) into a friend's hand, and substituted for it a 
piece of Queen Victoria's vulgar copper coin." " It was impossi- 
ble that the hopeful young lady," as the writer unbecomingly 
terms as respectable a person as himself, " could have exhibited 
such characteristic indications of Mesmeric influence if she had 
not been duly nickelised." And the editor of the " Lancet" is for 
ever referring his readers to those identical proceedings, and as- 
suming that there is no appeal from his infallible tribunal. It is a 
new sight to behold Mr. Wakley and the " Christian Observer " 
yoked together in the same car of " compact alliance." Misery, 
they say, makes us acquainted with strange companions ; and a bad 
cause appears to have much the same result. Not that Mr. Wak- 
ley's opinions are undeserving of attention. Mr. Wakley has 
''done the state some service." His first establishment of the 
"Lancet" was a useful act: it emancipated the minds of the 
junior members of his profession from a sluggish deference to 
official authority ; and it often threw considerable light on some 
more than questionable proceedings within the difFerent hospitals. 
In fact, it furnished an abundance of valuable information for all 
classes. Mr. Wakley's conduct in Parliament, in spite of his 
political ultraism, has been often marked by an honest detestation 
and exposure of abuse. And as a coroner, though occasionally 
officious and meddling, he has brought the reluctant authorities to 
a better knowledge of their duty. Still, Mr. Wakley is not oracu- 
lar on every subject. Clever as he is, he may, like other men, 
occasionally be mistaken, especially on points which he has little 
studied, and to which he comes for a novel and first experiment. 
He has so often enlightened the world with a description of what 
he tried in the cases of two of Dr. Elliotson's patients, that it is 
needless to repeat the story. It may be as well, however, to 
state, that it was in a set of experiments with nickel and lead, 
and which, he says, most egregiously failed, and proved the false- 
hood and imposition of the pretended sleepers. Those who have 
read Mr. Wakley's strictures should know that every charge has 
been again and again successfully answered. Dr. Elliotson, in 
the Letter to his Pupils on resigning his chair in University Col- 
lege, has entered fully into every part of the subject. Those who 
adopt the accusation should, at least, look into the reply. They 
will there find it stated, that some part of the proceedings were 
" entirely suppressed." They will there see how necessary it is 
in an experiment with metals on the human frame to proceed with 
the greatest caution and observation. They will there learn what 
slight disturbing effects change the nervous condition of the patient, 
and alter and affect the result of the experiment. " He acted," 
says Dr. Elliotson, " as though Mesmeric susceptibility is always 
present, and always the same ; whereas the reverse is the fact ; 
and experiments with water and metals frequently repeated so 
derange the susceptibility that we are often obliged to desist." 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 75 

Many a school-boy has made the trial of tasting, with his eyes 
bandaged, alternate glasses of white and red wine, till at last his 
palate has become so disordered, that he has been unable to detect 
the difference, and know the cue from the other. In Mesmeric 
experiments, whether in phreno-magnetism or with metals, it is 
indispensable with most patients that the action of the first expe- 
riment be removed, or wear off, before a second and different one 
be attempted. They will otherwise clash and injure each other, 
Time and the greatest nicety are requisite. The slightest cir- 
cumstance may upset and disturb the patient, and so produce a 
real failure in the experiment, and a seeming imposture on the part 
of the sleeper. With some somnambulists the trial with metals is 
complete ; with others it is most uncertain. This is mentioned 
as a caution to those who quit a public lecture with their scep- 
ticism only the more strengthened, because the mesmerised metals 
have not obtained the promised effect. But waving all this for a 
moment, let us suppose that these two most respectable patients of 
Dr. Elliotson, — patients with whom the editor of a religious 
periodical might not be ashamed to be acquainted, — let us suppose 
that these two patients were " deluding," and " affecting to suffer," 
and, for " sordid gain," " pretending to respond to the magical 
control " of the magnetist. "What then : does the cause of Mes- 
merism depend upon the truthfulness of one or two cases 1 
Granted that they are false, it would be rather a strong inference 
to assume that everything else were a mistake. What yet becomes 
of the thousand and one cases that could easily be counted up, if 
a careful statistical body of evidence were collected from all quar- 
ters ? It is to facts without number that we appeal ; to facts con- 
firmed by experiment and observation ; and a hundred failures, or 
a hundred cases of imposture, would detract but a small amount 
from the actual heap : 

" Suare est ex magno tollere acervo." 

But we must inform these cruel and thoughtless writers, who, 
for the sake of a pungent sentence, care not what libels they scat- 
ter against amiable and unoffending women, that these two sister- 
patients of Dr. Elliotson were not impostors. One of them is 
most respectably married ; and both have secured the good opinion 
of all who know them. But as one test of sincerity is better than 
fifty assertions, let us state an actual fact, and see how far it will 
;is a set-off to Mr. Wakley's charges. Mr. Gibbon Wake- 
field, "as hard-headed and little credulous a man as exists," had 
often excused himself, when invited, from going to University 
College Hospital to witness the Mesmeric phenomena in the 
oases of these two sisters. At. last he went, mid was astonished; 
hut still would not make up his mind to believe what he saw. 
"When the experiments were over, and Ik; whs passing through 
some part of the hospital to leave it, he accidentally noticed one 



T6 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

■of the sisters with her back to him, hanging over the balusters 
carelessly, and looking down, still in the Mesmeric delirium, and, 
therefore, highly susceptible. He thought this a favorable oppor- 
tunity to test her, because he was satisfied that she could not see 
anything that he did. He made a pass behind her back at some 
distance with his hand directed to her, ar*d she instantly was fixed 
and rigid, and perfectly senseless. He had sense enough to be- 
lieve his senses, and was now satisfied of the reality of all he had 
beheld."* This was a convincing fact ; and might satisfy the bro- 
ther-editors of the " Lancet" and of the " Christian Observer" of 
the truthfulness and honesty of the calumniated sleeper. A similar 
thing occurred to a friend of mine, as clear-headed and strong- 
minded a man as any of my acquaintance. He made a pass be- 
hind the patient's back (one of the sisters Okey), at Dr. Elliot- 
son's house, when she was occupied in conversation with some 
one else, and was unconscious of his presence and intention. In 
truth, he was hardly conscious of the intention himself; for it was 
the thought and act of a moment. But the poor girl was instantly 
seized, and fell back in a state of torpor. The gentleman who 
told me this is no believer in Mesmerism : he merely mentioned 
it as a circumstance that occurred within his experience. Facts, 
however, such as these will receive the attention of the candid 
and the impartial ; they refute the imputation of deception ; and it 
is by such plain statements that we reply to the heartless slanders 
of Mr. Wakley and his new ally, the " Christian Observer." 

But if Mr. Wakley did not succeed in disproving the honesty 
of two excellent sisters, there was one thing in which he was 
eminently fortunate. The thunders of the " Lancet" had their in- 
tended effect on his medical brethren. Though anything but a 
favorite with them before, he henceforward became their pet au- 
thority. And strange to say he also became their terror. Fear- 
ful of being hitched into a line of the next week's "Lancet," as 
believers in the so called absurdity, some gentlemen straightway 
swallowed their rising convictions with wry faces and reluctant 
hearts ; while the remainder, almost to a man, refused for the fu- 
ture to be present at any Mesmeric demonstration whatsoever. 
Like Mr. M'Neile at Liverpool, they carefully retreated from the 
evidence of their own senses, but from a different reason alto- 
gether. My clerical brother judged that there was something su- 
pernatural in these cases ; he regretted that he had not faith to 
play the part of exorciser and bid the devil depart,! and from want 
of this faith would " see nothing of it" But the fears of the libe- 
ral profession were of a different order. It was not of an evil 
spirit that they stood in awe ; it was of Mr. Wakley, of the evil 
genius of the " Lancet," of the gibes and jeerings of a substantial, 



* ZoTst, No. I., p. 83. 
t See Sermon, p. 147. 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS* 77 

corporeal editor, before which they shrank rebuked. This was> 
the demon whom they dreaded : and though we might have ex- 
pected better things from such a body of men, it is a fact, that 
mainly through an apprehension of having their names brought 
forward before the public in the pages of a clever periodical, very 
many gentlemen turned their backs on the subject, and from that 
hour declined all invitations to visit and examine the phenomena 
for themselves. And thus it went on for a few years. The pro- 
gress of Mesmerism was seemingly suspended in this country. 
It appeared stifled in its birth, an unlucky abortion, of which no- 
thing more would be heard. But silently and steadily was it 
making way. A change was gradually coming on. Day by day 
fresh accessions were counted in its train. The leaven was fer- 
menting ; and even from the ranks of the faculty a few adherents 
occasionally dropped in. I hope that I may now say confidently 
that a better spirit has decidedly sprung up among them. In that 
noble profession, which is alike distinguished for its humanity, its 
ability, its love of science, its love of truth, its large and compre- 
hensive philosophy, I believe that the far greater number would 
be ready to give, even to the hateful study of Mesmerism, the 
benefit of a faithful and dispassionate inquiry. I am sure that 
there are many who would cheerfully admit that the field of use- 
fulness is enlarged by it, and the means of lessening human ills 
considerably extended. I know that there are several, who, at 
the risk of damaging their worldly prospects, do not hesitate to 
step forward fearlessly and manfully, as believers in, and practis- 
es of, the calumniated science. More especially from among 
the younger members of the profession, there are to be found 
many zealous and talented men, taking a high and independent 
position, anxiously devoting their attention to the study, gathering 
facts as they arise, and prepared to employ the aid of this new 
power among the means of cure at their disposal. O si sic omnes ! 
For there are others, and particularly among the leaders* in more 
than one metropolis, who, to judge from their conduct and their 
language, would seem to have the same horror at being witnesses 
of Mesmeric phenomena, as the bat has at the approach of light. 
They sneer or smile when the subject is brought forward, accord- 



* Apropos of leaders in a profession, Hume says that " Harvey is entitled 
to the glory of having made, by reasoning alone, without any mixture of ac- 
cident, a capital discovery in one of the most important branches of science. 
He had also the happiness of establishing at once his theory on the most solid 
and convincing proofs ; and society has added little to the arguments sug- 
gested by his industry and ingenuity It was remarked that wo -physician 

in Europe, v)ho had reached forty years of age, ever to the end of his life, adopted 
Harvey's doctrine of the circulation of the blood, and that his practice in Lon- 
don diminished extremely, from the reproach drawn upon him by that great 
and signal discovery. So slow is the progress of truth in every science, even 
when not opposed by factious or superstitious prejudices ! He died in 1657, 
aged 79."— Hume's History of England, cap. 62. 



78 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

ing to their own turn of mind, or rather according to the tem- 
per of those with whom they argue. But to be presejit, to have 
their names bruited about as testimonies of a fact, to be unable to 
resist their own convictions, to be unable to remain in the bliss of 
ignorance, this is a position from which they fall ^>ack with a se- 
cret dread of approaching danger. They can be sharp-sighted 
enough in detecting narrowness of spirit in any other quarter, ad- 
vocates for freedom of conscience in theology, ameliorators of our 
criminal code in matters of jurisprudence, liberal, tolerant, and 
haters of abuse ; but the moment that Mesmeric influence 
is proposed as an auxiliary to their practice, that instant they 
are as sensitive, as angry, as staunch adherents of what is old, as 
stout opponents of what is new, as though the charter and privi- 
leges of their order were being jeopardied for ever! Doubtless, 
in all experiments of a strange and novel character, the public do 
expect from the medical profession the most cautious, slow, and de- 
liberate frame of mind. They expect from their closer cognizance of 
subjects of this nature the most searching, scrutinizing, hesitating 
conduct. Nay, they would not even be displeased to see an in- 
quiry carried on in a sceptical, unbelieving spirit. But still they 
do expect inquiry of some kind.* They do not expect to see a 
subject of this important nature treated with the vulgarest vitupe- 
ration and ridicule ; its supporters stigmatized as credulous, its 
operators defamed as fraudulent, its patients mocked at as impos- 
tors. They do not expect to see the heads of a profession which 



* I. would be unjust not to acknowledge, that many medical men, and some 
with whom I have the pleasure of being acquainted, have made a most fair 
and straightforward inquiry into the subject. But we too often meet with 
much of a contrary character. A letter was read to me from the West of 
England, saying, " We have had a lecturer on Mesmerism here ; all our 
medical men were present, and behaved in the most brutal and outrageous 
way." A lady, where I was on a visit lately said, " We have had a Mesme- 
ric lecturer in our town : Mr. =, a surgeon, behaved in the most bullying 

manner, and did all he could to intimidate the parties." In Norwich a Mes- 
meriser was recently giving a lecture. A most intelligent inhabitant of that 
city told me that many of the medical men " were furious" on the occasion. 
One of them, who was present, suddenly took out a lancet and ran it deeply 
into the patient's finger under the nail into the quick; a part most exquisitely 
sensitive, as we all know : no expression of pain was evident at the time ; 
but the poor boy suffered a good deal after he was awakened. I neither 
know nor wish to learn the name of the party who was guilty of this unmanly 
outrage. A strong feeling, I understand, has been entertained respecting 
him. But these are the ways in which an inquiry is conducted — if con- 
ducted at all, rather than with a calm, patient, philosophic temper, solicit- 
ous of truth. A most acute observer, though no believer in Mesmerism, 
lately remarked to me : " From what I read in different provincial papers, 
and from what I have heard from other quarters, it seems to me, that medi- 
cal men attend these meetings, not with the humane desire of discovering a 
valuble auxiliary, but solely with the hope of detecting imposture." It is 
too nearly the truth. I have also read some curious accounts of what, took 
place lately at Bedford and at Exeter. The conduct of certain parties to 
Mr. Vernon at Greenwich must be fresh in every one's memory. 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS, 79 

piques itself pfe-eminently on its liberality, exhibiting the bigotry 
of the priest, and the special pleading of the lawyer. Look, for 
instance, at what took place a few years back at the London Uni- 
versity through the instigation and promptings of certain members 
of the faculty. Often is the world invited to sneer at the blind 
prejudices that disfigure the banks of the Isis; often have the 
venerable doctors of Oxford been satirized for their love of the 
useless and the obsolete to the prejudice of some nobler branches 
of knowledge ; but in spite of all the faults of Alma Mater, in spite 
of all her past and present absurdities, I would contrast her con- 
duct en a memorable occasion in academic history, with the in- 
tolerance and hatred of novelty that recently marked the more- 
modern institution. Are the circumstances, for instance, under 
which Locke was expelled from Christ Church, one whit more 
disgraceful in themselves, than the treatment which induced Dr. 
Elliotson to withdraw his name from the Professorship in the 
University of London ? Was the temple of science more liberal 
than the hall" of logic ? was the new foundation more friendly to 
enlightened investigations than the old ? What, in short, were 
the respective circumstances of the two cases 1 In the ancient 
seat of learning, the timidity or servility of a dean and chapter ex- 
punged the name of the philosopher from the books of his college 
at the mandate of an arbitrary sovereign ; James the Second was 
the real cause of the expulsion of Locke, though the L^niversity of 
Oxford had long endured a most unjust opprobrium on the subject, 
till Lord Grenville cleared the matter up :* while in the model in- 
stitution, the vacancy in the Professor's chair was the result of an 
opposition to physiological experiments on the part of soi-disant 
friends to scientific inquiry, an opposition that was set on foot by 
Dr. Elliotson's own colleagues, and carried out to its completion 
by the despotic members of a liberal council ! 

But this subject will bear a little further examination. 

The University of London, or, as it has since been designated, 
University College, was originally formed on the most liberal prin- 
ciples. No tests, — no subscriptions were admissible ; — but to 
promote the largest amount of knowledge amongst the largest 
number of students, was the projected theory of its friends and 
founders. The stare super antiquas vias, — the clinging to old 
usages, — the rejection of new truths, — this was the favorite charge 
against the elder Institutions ; but with the rival establishment in 
Gower street, an order of things was to arise which would lead 
men forward to fresh fields of knowledge. Nay, so liberal were 
they, that the very name of Religion was not to pass their thres- 
hold ; each man was to do what seemed right in his own eyes ; 
and worship his Creator (or not) after the fashion he liked best. 
" But," says a clever article in the Spectator Newspaper, " there 



* See " Locke and Oxford," by Lord Grenville. 



SO MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

are few, even among the most liberal, who apply their liberalism 
to every point. Some are liberal on commercial, some on theo- 
logical, some on political, and some on juridical questions ; — but 
beyond the pale of their own peculiar subject, they are often as 
intolerant as ignorance can make them."* And thus, in the Uni- 
versity of London, though every one was to be his own theologian, 
the same latitude was not granted in the matter of medicine. Here 
all was by precedent and prescription ; here the conventional cus- 
toms of the faculty were deemed sacred as the Thirty-nine Arti- 
cles elsewhere ; here, whatever was not stamped with the orthodox 
seal of the College of Surgeons, was shunned as a heresy, to be 
burnt by the hands of the common hangman. As for the spiritual 
state of the students, — for their immortal and better part, no mat- 
ter what was tire result with them ; these young men might be- 
come Budhists, Mahometans, Atheists, or Muggletonians ; — any- 
thing they pleased, so long as their freedom of choice was not 
interfered with ; — but for the perishing bodies of the sick, all must 
be done selon les regies ; cure or relief was unimportant, so that 
the prejudices of the practitioner were not offended. Accordingly, 
when Mesmerism was introduced into the Hospital by their most 
distinguished Physician, — though the patients themselves were 
willing recipients, — though the most signal benefits were being 
daily experienced, — though the academies at Paris and Berlin had 
not thought the question beneath their notice, — this new, — this 
liberal, — this consistent University stepped forward to aim a blow 
at a science in its birth. The free-thinking Council met and passed 
the following Resolution : — 

" Resolved, — That the Hospital Committee be instructed to take 
such steps as they shall deem most advisable to prevent the prac- 
tice of Mesmerism, or Animal Magnetism, in future within the 
Hospital." 

No sooner was this Resolution passed, than Dr. Elliotson sent 
in his resignation. It ought, however, to be made known, that 
four Members of the Council, true to their own principles and to 
the great cause of humanity, constituted an honorable minority in 
a vote on a proposition that Dr. Elliotson should be invited back 
to resume his chair. These four were Lord Brougham,! Sir L. 
Goldsmith, Mr. Tooke, and Mr. Bishop. But the Council rejected 
the proposition. 

And so much for the liberal University of London ! 

Look, for another instance, to what occurred not long ago in 
Manchester. When the British Association, in one of its erratic 



* Spectator, Nov. 11th, 1843. 

f Lord Brougham was not then a believer in Mesmerism. I believe that it 
is now understood, that thf.s distinguished statesman, who has so strongly im- 
pressed the character of his mind upon the present generation, is a convert 
to the truth of this important science. With such a name on our side we can 
afford to be laughed at. 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS, 81 

flights, was preparing to visit that city, and by aid of railway 
excursions in the morning, and concerts and conversaziones in the 
evening " cram" its money-making population with the arcana of 
science, Mr. Braid,* a surgeon of that place, who had long devoted 
his attention to Mesmerism, offered a paper on the subject to the 
medical section, and proposed " to produce as many of his patients 
as possible in proof of the curative agency" of his particular sys- 
tem. He thought that " gentlemen of scientific attainments might 
thus have an opportunity of investigating the subject, unbiassed 
by local or personal prejudice." He himself " hoped to learn 
something from others, on points which were mysterious to him, as 
to the cause of the phenomena." And when we know the cha- 
racter of some of his alleged cures, — when we learn that many 
successful cures in paralysis, — -in tic-doloureux, and in rheuma- 
tism, and of improvement in sight, were amongst them, the public 
might naturally conclude that these savans would gladly accept 
the offer, and bring their scientific knowledge to bear upon the 
subject. Here was a concentration of talent and philosophy met 
together ; and now was a golden time for going into the question, 
and of putting down for ever a ridiculous pretension, or of satisfy- 
ing their own minds as to the truth of the practice. But no : 
" The committee of the medical section declined entertaining the 
subject." As the professor at Padua refused to look through Gali- 
leo's telescope at the moon ; — so these gentlemen at Manchester 
were unwilling to look at Mr. Braid's patients, for reasons that can 
only be known to themselves. Either they had some secret mis- 
givings, some fears touching their own conversion, some dread of 
having to unlearn much of their former acquirements, or the rules 
of the Association would not permit the arrangement, or their 
time, perhaps, at this important juncture was not quite at their dis- 
posal. As a committee of the British Association for the Ad- 
vancement of Science could scarcely be afraid of meeting facts, — 
let us see how the matter stood with them in respect to time. On 
turning, then, to a record of their proceedings,! we find, that the 
" section was thinly attended," — that several tedious papers were 
read, most of which could have been studied more profitably at 
home, — and that out of the six days on which the Sections met, 
there were two on which no business at all was transacted before 
the one for medicine, some part of which time might at least have 
been surrendered to Mr. Braid and his experiments, even if the 
rules of the society forbade a more formal lecture. These 
"learned Thebans" had flitted from their homes and travelled 
many a long and weary mile, and what was their dbject 1 Was it 
not the detection of error, the discovery of truth, and the good of 



* See Braid's " Neurypnology, considered in relation with Animal Magne- 
tism : illustrated by numerous cases of relief and cure of disease." 
t See Literary Gazette and Athenoeum for i842. 
6 



32 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

human kind? and might not Mesmerism or Neurypnology fall 
under one of these classes ? Oh ! let us not be too severely criti- 
cal . the visit to Manchester was not wholly without fruit. While 

one party was listening to a learned treatise on the " Palpi of 
Spiders" by which the arachnologist " would be prevented from 
falling into the too common error of mistaking young spiders for old 
ones"* another section was instructed by certain " microscopic 
researches in fibre," and on the "therapeutic application of air- 
tight fabrics." Released from these arduous duties, and this strain 
on their cerebral functions, our professors could only find repose 
by a promenade through the adjoining gardens ; here where Flora 
and Pomona vied with their most tempting gifts, and the eyes of 
beauty smiled reward on the learned labors of the lecturer,! who 
could expect even an anchorite to tear himself away, and find 
leisure for Mesmerism with all its cures 1 And then came the 
banquet with its venison and its wines ;- — and then the self-ap- 
plauding speeches, where one Section bepraised the other ; and 
then followed music and the charm of song, till at length wearied 
out with this train of endless occupations, " Section E" could only 
recline their heads upon the pillow, with the self-satisfied assur- 
ance that they had not, like Titus, lost a day ! To be serious, 
there is something melancholy in the state of mind here exhibited. 
These papers have their uses, and are valuable. But after all, the 
" proper study of mankind is man ;" — the palpi of spiders are not 
so interesting as the nervous system of a patient ; and when a 
subject like Mesmerism professes to mitigate the maddening throes 
of pain, — to give relief to thousands, — and to effect a cure, where 
a cure had been pronounced impracticable, to see men of education 
like those at Manchester pass over to the other side with offended 
dignity rather than be spectators of the fact, is a scene both pain- 
ful and humiliating. The question ran counter to all their previous 
views, — ari d so with sullen silence they declined to witness an art 
which promises to multiply their remedial resources to an extent, 
at this moment beyond calculation. 

Though Section E, however, declined to countenance Mr. 
Braid W their medical presence, a large body of visiters did not 
think 1m curious experiments beneath their notice, and his lec- 
tures were attended by a numerous and scientific audience. 

Turn again, for a third example, to the proceedings of the 
Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society on a late occasion.^ 
See the alarmed and almost frantic feelings with which certain 
parties discussed the remarkable report of the amputation of a 
man's thigh during the Mesmeric state. § See how anxious they 



* See the reports in \he Athenaeum, 
f See Times Newspaper and Literary Gazette. 

\ See " Numerous Cases of Surgical Operations without Pain," &c, by 
Dr. Elliotson. (Bailliere.) 
§ See " Account of a Case of successful Amputation of the Thigh during 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS, 83 

were to put the matter down, and bury the fact in oblivion. A 
Bi'ols thrown into an old Spanish convent, could not have more 
convulsed its inmates, than did this unfortunate treatise that 
learned assembly. Mr. Topham has much to answer for. The 
conscience of Mr. Ward must be weighed down with bitter self- 
reproach. True, these gentlemen established a great fact in phy- 
siology ; true, they assisted an unhappy sufferer with unexampled 
relief during a formidable operation ; but they cannot be other- 
wise than painfully mindful of the bile and bad blood they engen- 
dered amongst the members of the society on that unlucky eve- 
ning. Poor Wombell, indeed, enjoyed a composing sleep during 
the horrors of amputation ; but contrast that with the sleepless, 
feverish nights of the angry opponents, and then what has human- 
ity gained in the matter ? The thing was " irrational," — was 
" ridiculous," — was " impossible," and so what need was there 
for the Society to discuss the subject ? Like a country bench of 
double-barrelled squires assembled to convict a suspected offender 
against the game laws, this philosophical audience arrived at a 
" foregone conclusion," before the merits of the case had even 
been opened. The Mesmeriser and the poacher must both be 
silenced : the one has no licence to kill, nor the other to cure ; 
and so defence or explanation are alike inadmissible. One gen- 
tleman declared that he would not believe the facts had he wit- 
nessed them himself. Another expressed his perfect satisfaction 
w r ith the condemnatory reports made by the others, and par con- 
sequent, the needlessness that he should be present and examine 
them himself! Really, in passing through the account of this 
debate, — in noting the anxiety of certain members to expunge all 
record of the proceedings from their minute-book, I could have 
fancied that I was reading the discussions of a knot of mendicant 
friars, terrified at the dawn of the Reformation ; I felt myself 
transplanted, as it were, into the Vatican, where was a letter from 
Luther, frightening the holy conclave from its propriety. All the 
time that I was reading the speeches of certain opponents, there 
kept involuntarily rising up in my mind the outcry of Demetrius, 
the ] ihcsian silversmith, " Our craft is in danger to be set at 
nougiit : and, Sirs, ye know that by this craft we have our 
wealth.'^ (Acts xix. v. 25, 27.) One would suppose that these 
gentlemen would remember the treatment of Harvey, the circu- 
lator, as he was termed ; the averted eye that at first was turned 
on Jenner ; and the disbelief with which many great and mighty 
discoveries have been received, and be more cautious and circum- 
spect for the future. Oh ! if a love of ancient usages — if a 
hatred of new and unpalatable truths is to bear away the bell, 
Oxford may now hide her diminished head, Salamanca " pale her 



the Mesmeric Sate, without the Knowledge of the Patient." Read to the 
Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society, November, J 842, by W. Topham, 
Esq., and W. S. Ward, Esq. (Bailliere, Regent Street.) 



84 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS, 

ineffectual fires," the doctors of the Sorbonne part with their old 
pre-eminence, for competitors are stepping in from the " liberal 
professions," able and willing to take the lead- And yet we are 
all aware of the sarcasms with which the "faculty" and the 
" philosophers " treat the " learned ignorance " of the clergy, and 
their presumed dislike to scientific inquiry ; and perhaps we are 
too often a fair subject for such animadversion, more especially if 
many such sermons as the one preached at Liverpool, are deli- 
vered by us : but I can tell " the profession," in return, that I 
should often have more hope of bringing home a new and impor- 
tant truth to the minds of a simple, ignorant peasantry, than of 
combating successfully the bigotry of the philosopher, and the pre- 
judices of an educated and scientific assembly. Yes : save me 
from the credulity of the sceptic, from the intolerance of the 
tolerant, from the tyranny of the ultra-liberal ! Experience has 
shown us some of the bitterest opponents of real freedom of con- 
science amongst the staunchest sticklers for religious liberty ; we 
daily see men, who will believe nothing, even upon the strongest 
testimony, in contradiction to their preconceived systems, believ- 
ing everything against the veracity and competency of the most 
credible witnesses ;* and here we have a free-thinking council 
opposed to freedom of inquiry, and a body of gentlemen, whose 
whole professional career is based on experimental evidence, on 
one occasion declining to witness facts, and upon another, tjisown 
into a confusion, worse than that in King Agramont's camp,f from 
the recital of a case, which, even if attended by a few erroneous 
conclusions, was at least deserving of a candid investigation. 

It is the remark of an acute and observant friend, that bo great 
teform or improvement in a profession has ever proceeded from 



* " I would rather believe," said a surgeon to a friend of mine, " that all 
Mesmerisers and their patients were impostors, than give credit to one of 
their facts, however well authenticated." " You must rather believe," said 
an anti-mesmeric lecturer, " that all your wives and sisters and children are 
false, than think any of these cases true." 

f The wild and fanciful poet describes Discord as hastening with her bellows 
to blow up the strife : — 

" La Discordia . . . 
Corre a pigliare i mantici di botto, 
Ed agli accesi fochi esca aggiungendo, 
Ed accendendone altri, fa salire 
Da molti cori un alto incendio d'ire." 

Orlando Fur., canto xxvii., 39. 
From all accounts there were no bellows wanted that evening in Berners 
Street. The fire was kindled before the match was applied. Gibbon sneers 
about the " Monks of Magdalen," and the " port and prejudice" they im- 
bibed. The monks of Magdalen, with their venerable president, may now 
turn the tables against their liberal scoffers. "What is the favorite beverage 
of the Chirurgical Society, I know not. A friend, more witty than wise, sug- 
gests that, to judge from the temper of the meeting, the potations that night 
must have been gin and bitters. 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 85 

its own members. One or two may have originated the idea ; but 
the adoption of the plan has generally been forced on them from 
" without." This is eminently true in regard to ecclesiastical mat- 
ters. They were not the clergy but the laity that led on the 
movement in Church reform. The same may be said in regard 
to law. The illustrious Romilly commenced his parliamentary 
career with propositions for an amendment of our criminal code ; 
but it is notorious how unpopular in Westminster Hall were his 
suggestions ; and it was public opinion alone that carried out his 
views. Again may the same remark be applied to the medical 
body. Men of a certain standing in the profession are unwilling 
to depart from the old routine ; they are afraid of losing caste ; 
they care not to unlearn their early teaching, and begin with some 
fresh laws of nature, of which they were unaware ; and so, sooner 
than sacrifice themselves, they sacrifice truth. It is thus in the 
instance of Mesmerism. It was a medical man that first disco- 
vered it ; but they were not medical men that took it up ; and 
their attention, — must we say their unwilling attention, — was at 
last obtained, only through the firm attitude that their own patients 
often displayed on the question. And yet, even if Mesmerism 
had been an unreal phantom, there were reasons why they need 
not have felt such shame in looking it impartially in the face. 
Great names could be numbered amongst its adherents. Some 
of the first men of our day, — the first in science and philosophy, 
have not blushed to express their strong convictions of its truth. 
That can be no common delusion upon a subject on which La 
Place, the most profound and exact of mathematicians, could 
state, that " on his own principles he could not withhold his assent 
to it ;" and on which he could write, that " it would be unphiloso- 
phical to deny the existence of the phenomena, because, in the 
present state of our knowledge, their operations are yet inexplica- 
ble to us."* That can be no weak fancy, when Cuvier, by com- 



* Mr. Chenevix states, in the London Medical and Physical Journal, that 
he had more than one conversation with La Place upon Mesmerism, about 
1816 and 1817, and that the expression of that great philosopher constantly 
was, "that the testimony in favor of the truth of Mesmerism, coming with 
such uniformity from enlightened men of many nations, who had no interest 
to deceive, and possessed no possible means of collusion, was such that, ap- 
plying to it his own principles and formulas respecting human evidence, he 
could not withhold his assent to what was so strongly supported." The follow- 
ing are his own words, in his Essay on Probabilities: " Les phenomenes sin- 
guliers qui resultent de Pextreme sensibilite des nerfsdansquelquesindividus, 
ont donne naissance A diverses opinions sur l'existenee d'un nouvel a«:ent, 
que Ton a nomme magnetisme animal : * * * * II est naturel de penser que 
Paction de ccs causes est tres-faible, et qu'clle peut etre facilement troublee 
par des circonstances accidentelles; ainsi, parceque dans quelques cas, elle 
ne s'est point manifested, on ne doit pas rejeler son existence. Nous som- 
mes si loin de connaitre tous les agens de la nature, et leurs divers modes 
d'action, qu'il serait peu philosophique de nier les phenomenes, uniquement 
parcequ'ils sont inexplicable dans l'etat actuel de nos connaissances." — La 
Place, Essai Philosophique sur les Probability. Paris, 4th edition, p. 131. 



86 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

mon consent the first of modern naturalists, could say, that " the 
effects produced by Mesmerism no longer permit it to be doubted, 
that the proximity of two living bodies in certain positions and 
with certain actions, has a real result, independent of all partici- 
pation of the imagination."* That can be no weak or unworthy 
study, to which a Brougham, — he whom all parties are anxious 
to claim as an ally, — he who has run the round of science, and 
explored each department of knowledge at once with a philosophic 
and critical spirit, could give the attention of his vast intellect, and 
not feel it a degradation to his judgment to be spoken of as a believer 
in its facts. That can be no vague notion, of which a Hufeland, if 
not the first, in the very first rank of German physicians, has ex- 
pressed himself a firm and conscientious supporter. The cata- 
logue of able and superior men that could be found among the 
friends of the science would run on to " the crack of doom." 
From my own experience I assert, that those of my acquaintance 
who are its known and confessed believers, are as clear-headed, 
as strong-minded, as sober-thinking, as free from that wild, enthu- 
siastic feeling which prompts men to catch at the newest fancy, 
as any individuals in the kingdom. All of them, I think without 
exception, were strong unbelievers, if not opponents, till they 
practically and experimentally looked into the question. Verily, 
if we are mistaken, we belong to a goodly company ! We have 
plenty of comrades to keep us in countenance. We can bear a 
laugh at the number or quality of our friends. Let the wits, then, 
exhaust their raillery at our expense ; let the prejudiced shake 
their heads and sneer ; let the timid and the cautious hold back 
for a season in doubt. Truth, eternal truth, must be our motto. 
The more we dive into the subject, the more shall we have to 
learn ; the more the science is practised and employed, the more 
will the philanthropist have season to rejoice at the virtues of the 
discovery ; and the more will the humble and thankful Christian 
be enabled to exclaim, " It is the gift of a merciful and allwise 
God !" 



* This is Cuvier's own language , " Cependant Jes effets obtenus sur des 
personnes deja sans connaissance avant que Poperation commencat — ceux 
qui ont lieu sur les autres personnes aprts que Poperation merae leur a fait 
perdre connaissance, et ceux que presentent les animaux, ne permittent 
guere de douter, que la proximite de deux corps animes dans certaines posi- 
tions et avec certains mouvements, n'ait un effet reel, independant de toute 
participation de Pimaginalion d'une des deux. II paroit assez clairement 
aussi que ces effets sont dus a une communication quelconque qui s'etablit 
entre leurs systemes nerveux." — Cuvier, Jlnatomie Comparee, torn, ii., p. 
117. "Du Systeme nerveux considere en action." 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 87 



CHAPTER V. 

But we have another and a third class of opponents, widely 
different indeed in the quality of their objections from either of 
the two parties with whom we have been hitherto contending, 
whose antipathy to Mesmerism professes to arise from a consi- 
deration of its dangers. It is not on the irreligious character of 
Mesmerism that they dwell ; at that view of the question they 
shrug their shoulders and sneer, as if they themselves had never 
advanced it. It is not that they are unbelievers in Mesmerism ; 
the facts brought home to their knowledge are so staggering, 
that they are ashamed to remember that they ever had their 
doubts. It is of the dangers of Mesmerism that they now speak : 
" It is so fearful a power," they say, — " so liable to be abused, — 
so pregnant with mischief, — no one is safe, — no one can answer 
for what may happen, its practice ought to be prohibited :" and all 
this is gravely stated by those with whom, but a few weeks 
before, we had been fighting, totis viribus, in assertion of its 
reality. 

Deleuze, in his practical work, says, " The antagonists of mag- 
netism, after having decided that it did not exist, have declaimed 
against the dangers that accompany it."* Every Mesmeriser will 
confirm this statement from his own experience. It has happen- 
ed to all of us, over and over again. I was on a visit with some 
friends last summer, whom I in vain endeavored to convince of 
the truths of Mesmerism ; an incredulous but polite smile settled 
on their faces : so perceiving that the subject was unwelcome, I 
passed on to another topic. I met them again in the course of 
two months. It was now their turn to begin : they were full of 
the subject ; but it was altogether of its dangers that they now 
harangued. " Dangerous '" I calmly observed, " you surprise 
me : how can a thing that does not exist be dangerous ?" " Oh," 
was the reply, " everybody knows that there is something in Mesmer- 
ism, and it is so very dangerous." 

The transition of these views on Mesmerism is as abrupt as 
Napoleon described the passage to be of the sublime to the ridicu- 
lous : " it is but a step." Extremes, in fact, are always meet- 
ing. One day there is nothing in Mesmerism : the next, a great 
deal too much. 



* "Les antagonistes du magnetisme, apres avoir prononcequ'iln'm'j/gpaj, 
ont declame centres les dangers qui l'accompagnent." — Deleuze, Instruction 
P., p. 265. 



88 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

The first French commissioners, whose Report is supposed to 
prove the non-existence of Mesmerism, also speak of its dangers, 
and decide positively that its effects may be most serious. A 
novice in the first elements of logic would see, that a thing that 
does not exist, can be neither useful nor dangerous ; and hence 
we derive an additional corroboration, that it was not the purpose 
of the commissioners to do more than disprove the theory of the 
fluid. 

That Mesmerism has its dangers, must be admitted : what 
good is there in nature free from some attendant evil? what is 
there that folly or wickedness may not abuse ? Still I am per- 
suaded that the actual amount of these dangers is very greatly ex- 
aggerated. The invisibility of the agent, our ignorance of the true 
springs of man's organization, the novelty of the remedy, and our 
natural timidity at the employment of a new mysterious treatment, 
all these circumstances would cast a deeper shade of coloring 
over that danger which may really exist : but having taken much 
pains to examine the subject, and discussed it often with some of 
the most experienced Mesmerisers, I feel assured that the appre- 
hensions generally entertained are to a great degree without 
foundation. Still it must be owned that Mesmerism has its dan- 
gers : and as a work that professes to meet all the popular objec- 
tions, would be incomplete without some allusion to them, we 
will state what they are, and how they may be met. 

The dangers may be divided into the physical and the moral. 

I would begin, however, with the remark, that Mesmerism is 
not a plaything for the idle and the curious. It is not meant as a 
pastime for a dull day in the country. Because a sharp frost has 
set in, and the hounds cannot meet at cover, or a deluge of rain 
has imprisoned the listless sportsmen, and the young squire, to 
kill the dreary morning, tries his hand in the new art, and Mes- 
merises his sisters or their lady's maid, and something unpleasant 
occurs, is that to be laid to the door of Mesmerism ? It would 
appear from certain anecdotes, that Animal Magnetism is to sup- 
ply the place of some of those old Christmas amusements, of 
which our altered habits have destroyed the charm ; and thus 
" philosophy in sport" is to become really a part of an evening's 
entertainment. How absurd and monstrous all this is ! And then 
grave ladies very naturally look solemn and forbidding, and make 
not a few unreasonable remarks on the impropriety of Mesmeric 
experiments. But who would think of vaccinating a whole fami- 
ly for a little domestic diversion? who dreams of insinuating the 
lancet's point into the arm of some plethoric uncle, to see how 
the good gentleman would feel after a little festive depletion ? 
And why is Mesmerism to be an exception to every rule of con- 
duct on such a subject ? As Mr. Colquhoun observes most judi- 
ciously, " In attempting to produce the magnetic phenomena, I 
would eminently caution individuals against all experiments of 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 89 

mere curiosity. Whatever ludicrous ideas many persons may 
hare been hitherto in the habit of associating with this subject, I 
can seriously assure them that experience has proved magnetism 

to be no trifling matter We must not recklessly attempt to 

handle the thunderbolt, or to play with the lightning of heaven. 
Like every higher gift conferred upon us by the Creator, the mag- 
netic faculty ought to be exerted with judgment and discretion, 
and only for benevolent purposes." "We do not know," says Dr. 
Hufeland, " either the essence or the limits of this astonishing 
power : whoever, then, undertakes to direct this power, let him 
enter upon the duty with the most profound respect for the princi- 
ple which he endeavors to set in operation. Above all, let him 
beware of magnetising in sport. In medicine, the most indifferent 
remedy is injurious to persons in health ; still more so an agent 
which is perhaps the most active and energetic of all remedies." 
All these observations deserve serious attention : I would say 
even further, that everything of a useless or jocose character con- 
nected with the practice, should be discountenanced in the strong- 
est way ; children should be especially warned against " playing 
at Mesmerism :" and if the above is what is meant by the oppo- 
nents of magnetism in their remarks upon its dangerous conse- 
quences, I agree with them most cordially, and have always done 
my utmost within my own circle to discourage such improper 
and discreditable trifling. 

This part of the subject, then, I at once dismiss as foreign to 
the question. The abuse of a power is no argument against its 
use : and because Mesmerism is not a fit game for foolish girls to 
play with, this is no reason why it should be pre-eminently haz- 
ardous, when adopted seriously as a remedial art. 

Still, even in this line, Mesmerism may have its dangers, espe- 
cially when practised by the ignorant and the timid. A nervous 
Mesmeriser is worse than a nervous patient. The calm collected 
manner of the judicious Magnetist will soothe the most agitated 
sleeper ; but even the tranquil repose of the deepest slumber may 
be disturbed by a sympathy with the frightened and unpractised 
manipulator. But what is there strange or unusual in this ? why 
are not experience and competency equally necessary in Mes- 
merism, as in everything else ? who employs a raw surgeon for a 
formidable operation ? who sends for an untried dentist to extract 
a difficult and decayed eye-tooth 1 Skill, practice, knowledge, 
are qualifications that are requisite in every department ; and in 
no treatment are coolness and presence of mind more essential 
than in the direction of the Mesmeric power ; a fact which ought 
to be evident to all when they reflect that this agent " penetrates 
the depths of the organism and the internal life of the nervous 
system, and may even affect the mind itself, and unsettle its ordi- 
nary relations." This is the language of the great Dr. Hufeland 
himself, in the cautions that he gives to the unwary Magnetiser. 



90 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

But even with the drawback of inexperience and ignorance, I 
know not that Mesmerism is so dangerous as much of the common 
medical practice of the present day. When we remember that 
such tremendous poisons as prussic acid and arsenic are among 
the favorite remedies of the modern school ; that our lives are at 
the mercy of an incautious physician in the first act of prescrib- 
ing ; that an error in weight of the deadly ingredient may alter 
the whole character of the compound ; that a careless chemist 
may convert the most judicious prescription into a draught of 
death ; that a sleepy nurse may administer the wrong medicine ; 
who can think of these and similar contingencies, and not tremble 
when he sees the physician with the pen in his hand ? These 
things are mentioned, not to prove that Mesmerism has not its 
dangers ; but to show the timid and unthinking opponent that the 
very system to which from custom he steadily adheres, has its 
evils and its hazards also, perhaps even greater than those of our 
ill-understood art. 

Still Mesmerism has its dangers. Among them I would more 
especially mention those that may arise out of the alarm of an 
inexperienced practitioner. If a change quite unexpected should 
take place in the sleeper, — if the trance should be prolonged to an 
unusual duration, — if convulsions, or fits, or violent pain (all, in 
every probability, symptoms of the desired action) should come on ; 
the inexpert Mesmeriser might take fright ; his fright would act 
sympathetically upon the sleeper ; great excitement and agitation 
would be the result ; this again would react on the Mesmeriser ; 
till from the mutual effect on each, very serious consequences 
might be produced. The health of the patient might be affected 
most alarmingly ; but all this would be the fault, not of Mesmer- 
ism, — but of the ignorant nervous operator, who had undertaken 
a duty for which he was not prepared. 

In all these emergencies, the calm judicious Mesmeriser sees 
nothing to fear : he knows that the most violent hysteric action is 
often the sign of a welcome crisis ; — he knows that the most pro- 
longed sleep — a sleep even of days, will wear itself out at last ; 
he knows that the most threatening language and aspect of the 
sleep waker (like that of a person in a deranged condition) can be 
best met by coolness and kindness : he is consequently firm, col- 
lected, gentle ; his calmness and firmness act healthily on the 
patient ; and however great may have been the excitement of the 
Mesmeric state, the patient is sure to awake out of his slumbers, 
refreshed and strengthened, with the mind beautifully composed, 
and the whole system renovated to an extraordinary degree. 

It is here not unadvisable to give a caution by the way. If the 
sleeper cannot be awakened by the usual methods, and the un- 
easiness of the Mesmeriser has acted with an unpleasant or ex- 
citing effect, to send for a medical man, who disbelieves in the 
science, and would treat it as a common normal state, might be 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 91 

followed by the most serious consequences. I cannot impress my 
readers too strongly with the necessity of bearing this caution in 
mind. Calmness and patience would bring all round. 

Another point on which inexperience may be thrown off its 
guard, and through which very formidable results might arise, is 
the danger of an imperfect partial waking. With some patients 
it is not always easy to distinguish at first the half state from full 
and restored consciousness : the patient seems perfectly awakened 
and says he is so ; and the unpractised operator would be apt to 
leave him. This is a condition of real danger : the patient has 
mo more self-control, or management of his actions, than a child 
or idiot, and yet for a time will converse most sensibly, and recog- 
nize every person present. I have seen this distinctly in two 
patients. It happened to me one time with Anne Vials, whom I 
could not manage thoroughly to awaken : she said she was awake ; 
and she walked about the room, and eat and talked as usual. I 
was on the point of leaving her, being persuaded that she was 
awake, when the sound of something peculiar in her voice caught 
my ear ; I recognized it to be the tone of the sleeping, and not the 
waking state (for the tones are often different) ; and I soon had 
reason to discover that she was not awakened. The French call 
this state " un somnambulisme imparfait." Townshend, in his 
" Facts," mentions a case of the kind. It is not uncommon, and 
should be watched ; as the patient might commit some action, 
serious in its consequences not only to himself but to others. 

Several other minor points might be mentioned; for some of 
which I would refer the reader to the fuller work of Deleuze : his 
" Practical Instruction" is a most useful book for the young Me&- 
meriser. 

Still I repeat that the physical clangers of Mesmerism are very 
greatly exaggerated ; and I would conclude this part of the sub- 
ject with a noticeable fact : that in spite of the number of ignorant 
Mesmerisers that are taking up the subject, — in spite of the num- 
ber of most delicate patients that have been placed under its in- 
fluence, — in spite of the number of opponents that are anxiously 
on the look-out for a disastrous result — no well-authenticated fact 
of great and serious mischief has yet been named. I rather 
wonder that it is so ; Mesmerism must, like everything else, have 
its drawbacks and its dangers. Still nothing very formidable has 
yet been publicly mentioned : now and then we read in the news- 
papers of a " fatal effect ;" but in a few days we find a paragraph 
saying that the patient is better than ever. Now and then we hoar 
in our own circle of something deplorable, which, on examination, 
proves to be a mistake. I was told the other day of a gentleman 
who had greatly injured the eyesight of one of his children by 
even Mesmerism. I called and asked if it were true : he had never 
Mesmerised one of his children ; and nothing had been the mat- 
ter with their eyes. And thus it generally is ; and several friends 



92 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS* 

who have taken some pains to make the inquiry, have never yet 
been able to establish one case of serious injury or evil : still my 
opinion is, that Mesmerism has its dangers, and some, too, of 
rather an anxious kind. I say, therefore, to the inexperienced 
Mesmeriser, — " Be cautious, be circumspect ; you are playing 
with a powerful and ill-understood agent ; and you are bound for 
the sake of the patient's safety to adopt every precaution that 
prudence can suggest." 

But there are certain dangers touching la morale to which Mes- 
merism is supposed to be peculiarly open, and respecting which 
allusion is often made in conversation. Much ignorance also 
exists on this point ; and here, too, it is necessary to distinguish 
clearly as to what is intended by the charge. 

If it is meant, that under the pretext of Mesmerising, in a case 
where Mesmerism is not required, parties can avail themselves of 
the occasion to commit an offence contre les bonnes mceurs,! am 
not careful to enter upon the objection. Men sometimes go to 
church from the most improper motives ; men sometimes read the 
Scriptures with no other view than that of finding food for ribaldry 
and unbelief ; still, as has been often said, who would shut up our 
churches or burn our Bibles on that account ? Again, we say the 
abuse of a thing proves nothing against its value. If parties, in 
sport or in thoughtlessness, throw themselves into the power of an 
unprincipled acquaintance, with them lies the fault, and they must 
take the consequences. Still I have my doubts whether Mesmer- 
ism does afford the easy opening for misconduct, with which it 
has been taxed. The deep sleep, or torpor, which would place 
the sleeper so completely at the mercy of the Mesmeriser, as to 
give an opportunity for evil, does not occur every day ; — and more 
generally, if not always, the Mesmeric state produces, on the part 
of the patients, such a high tone of spirituality and sense of right, 
as to make them less than ever disposed to an acquiescence in 
what was wrong. 

Still, into this view of the question I do not enter. Our ques- 
tion is, whether, in the treatment of the sick, and in regarding 
Mesmerism as a serious remedy, the influence be open to objec- 
tions on the score of morality and les bienseances ? I answer, in 
the most unhesitating way, to no objections whatsoever. In 
Mesmerism, as in everything else, certain precautions and regula- 
tions are, of course, to be adopted ; and in default of those pre- 
cautions, why is the science to be blamed for the neglect of its 
own rules ? Who sends for a low pettifogging attorney to make 
his will, or conduct an important lawsuit 1 who deposits his money 
with a banker that offers ten per cent, interest with no visible 
capital at command 1 who admits an unprincipled physician into his 
house 1 Only let similar safeguards be employed in Mesmerism ; 
and nothing need be feared. Not only should the Mesmeriser be 
a person of character, of known and established principle ; but 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS, 93 

even then it is the rule that the process should be conducted in 
the presence of a third party. All Mesmerisers require an atten- 
tion to this rule where it can be observed. Patients have it in 
their power to have any of their relations present when they like, 
Let this regulation be remembered and carried out ; and where is 
the objection ? Not only is every needful security obtained by 
this course, but " the appearance, even, of evil" is avoided ; and 
the good work cannot be ill-spoken of, or misrepresented by the 
malicious neighbor or the candid friend. 

Another objection is, that even in the presence of a third party 
the process is one, qui blesse les convenances ; and that the treat- 
ment is what a father or brother would feel a pain in witnessing, 
Never was there a more unfounded mistake. I have seen a good 
deal of Mesmerism, and with different Mesmerisers ; and never 
observed anything to which the most scrupulous delicacy could 
object. An evil-disposed chemist may administer a valuable drug 
in an improper way, and with an improper object ; but what 
argument is that against the drug? Choose a Mesmeriser of 
character, and choose a confidential friend or relative for a wit- 
ness, and you have every guarantee that the management of the 
case will be such as the most fastidious would require. 

Another objection is, that the sleeper is placed in an undesira- 
ble state of feeling in regard to the Mesmeriser ; that there is an 
attraction towards him, — something amounting to affection, or even 
love ; and that this state of mind or feeling reduces the patient to 
an improper dependence on the will of another. That, in the 
Mesmeric state, the sympathy between the Mesmeriser and the 
sleeper is powerful and extraordinary, we all know ; it is one of 
the most curious phenomena. The sensibility that is then pro- 
duced, is singular in the extreme, But the feeling is rather that 
which exists between two sisters than anything else ; it is a feel- 
ing which has regard to the happiness and the state of moral being 
of the Mesmeriser ; which is alive to injuries or pain inflicted on 
him — which desires his well-being here and hereafter. That it goes 
in any way beyond this is a mistake. Nay, as was before re- 
marked, so far from the Mesmeric sleep producing a state of feel- 
ing inconsistent with what is right, it is considered by the most 
experienced operators, that a great incrsase of the moral percep- 
tions is created and brought out ; and thit if the Mesmeriser were 
capable of commanding an improper or reprehensible act, the 
patient would revolt from an obedience to his will, with a lan- 
guage and manner even more decided and peremptory than when 
in a waking state. And in confirmation of this view, I can decid- 
edly state from observation, that the intellectual faculties are sur- 
prisingly increased and developed in the sleep ; so much so, as to 
lead to the opinion that there is a general rise and exaltation of the 
whole moral being when under the Mesmeric influence. Be this, 
however, as it may, and be the relation between the Mesmeriser 



94 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

and the patient however peculiar, the whole sympathy and attrac* 
tion are at an end and forgotten the moment the sleeper is awak- 
ened into actual existence. 

Another objection is, the facility with which unconscious par- 
ties can be put to sleep against their will, — that "no one is safe, 
— no one can feel sure as to what may happen, and that a power- 
ful Mesmeriser has his whole acquaintance under his command." 
This is a view entertained among the nervous and the timid ; but 
one more groundless can hardly be mentioned. Except in certain 
most rare -cases of extreme sensibility, the Mesmeric sleep could 
not be induced against the will or consciousness of the party 
Mesmerised. Certain conditions are requisite. Silence and 
stillness are among the most indispensable. It may often require 
half an hour of the most profound repose, before any somnolency 
can be obtained ; and, with many patients, the Mesmeric action 
must be renewed for several days in succession before any effect 
be procured. The whole objection, therefore, is so absurd, that 
no notice of it would be necessary, were it not that the opinion on 
this point is so very universal, and one that has led the supersti- 
tious to their worst apprehensions against the science. 

Somewhat akin to the last objection is another class of feelings 
that should not be passed over ; I mean a vague undefined " hor- 
ror" of Mesmerism generally, a mysterious dislike to it,— an 
opposition which the party objecting would find difficult to put into 
a tangible shape, but which yet fills the mind with an unpleasant 
sensation respecting it. This is distinct from an opinion of its 
irreligious or satanic character ; without adopting that view of 
the subject, many persons regard Mesmerism with an indistinct 
and painful abhorrence. Here, again, we must distinguish and 
clearly understand what they do dislike. If they dislike the 
abuses to which the practice is liable,— if they dislike to see it 
•made the subject for trick and foolish experiment, — we can inform 
them that all right-minded Mesmerisers participate strongly in 
their feelings, and hold such conduct as most revolting and 
wicked. But if they dislike to see a racking pain removed by it, 

, to see the feverish, sleepless invalid enjoying a balmy slumber 

by its aid, — to see the nervous, excited patient restored to com- 
fort and repose,— surely their feelings can only arise from preju- 
dice, or rather from the Novelty and freshness of the art. It is 
nothing else than what is even yet experienced among the unedu- 
cated classes respecting vaccination. Large numbers entertain a 
" horror " of this remedy. How often has the wife of a laboring 
man told me that she would not have her child infected with the 
disease of a cow ! It is objectionable to her, only because it is 
strange. And so it is with the present aversion to Mesmerism. 
Habit and observation will soon remove this feeling. The 
strangeness will pass away. People will soon perceive what a 
simple, easy, and natural process Mesmerism is ; and when, day 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 95 

after day, they shall be privileged to witness some dear and be- 
loved relative relieved or comforted by its means, or when they 
themselves, after the agonies of pain, shall have found a respite or 
a cure, their horror will soon be turned into gratitude to the Author 
of all good, and with myself they will exclaim that Mesmerism is 
the gift of God ! 

But though the dangers of Mesmerism have been magnified 
into an importance which they do not deserve, and which, for the 
most part, could be avoided by prudence, still our science has its 
Difficulties. These difficulties somewhat arise from the infancy 
of the practice, and which the experience of a few years will tend 
to diminish ; still they are considerable. It is easy to say to 
some unhappy sufferer, whom all the usual methods of the healing 
art have failed to benefit, " Go and be Mesmerised," — the diffi- 
culty is to find a Mesmeriser. They are not so easily obtained. 
The highest qualifications are requisite. Added to which the 
treatment of a chronic case generally demands a sacrifice of time, 
which, even if men have the inclination, they have not always the 
leisure to bestow. Experience and knowledge are also indis- 
pensable : I should be sorry to place a very delicate patient into 
the hands of an unpractised Mesmeriser. Temper, patience, and 
presence of mind are also requisites ; and as we before stated 5 
character and right principle must not be forgotten. Here, then, 
are a number of qualities desirable for the formation of a compe- 
tent Mesmeriser, and which are not to be procured at a moment's 
warning. And this, for the present, throws a difficulty in the 
work. It retards its course of more extended usefulness. Still, 
time will correct this inconvenience. What the public demands, 
the public will always find provided ere long. As there is every 
certainty that Mesmerism will shortly take its rank among the 
established branches of the medical art, a supply of qualified prac- 
titioners will be soon forthcoming. Our difficulties are but tem- 
porary. Many junior members of the profession will devote 
themselves to the study, and obtain a standing in society by their 
experience and success. Others, whose time is less at their 
command, will only give a general superintendence ; while the 
actual treatment will be conducted by pupils, specially instructed 
for the work. Nurses will be taught to Mesmerise. Students in 
the hospitals will gradually bring themselves into notice by a use- 
ful exercise of their power ; and when the drag-chain, which 
hinders the progress of the good cause, shall be removed by the 
retirement of the present Lecturers and Managers, these invalu- 
able public institutions will become, at the very request of the 
subscribers, schools for the practice of the Mesmeric science. In 
short, everything looks fair and promising. Our obstacles are 
abating every day. Prejudice is becoming more and more silent. 
Fanaticism is retiring to a few select quarters. Ridicule is losing 



96 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

the sharpness of its edge. The timid begin to speak. The oppo- 
nents display greater anger and abuse. A general interest is 
awakened. We have evidently reached a crisis. Our difficulties 
have been long and many : but 

" Time and the hour run through the roughest day I" 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 97 



CHAPTER VI. 

But a more anxious consideration remains behind. The very 
truthfulness of Mesmerism carries along with it a perplexing 
apprehension. Its dangers may be proved in great measure 
chimerical ; its difficulties may be surmounted ; its curative 
powers may be admitted in all their magnitude ; the charge of an 
evil agency may be rejected as the product of that heated fancy 
which invades the mind at the appearance of novelty ; and yet 
well-regulated minds may approach the discussion with a dis- 
tressing reluctance. Another argument presents itself. The sub- 
ject appears to trench on the most sacred ground. It threatens to 
work a revolution in the most awful questions that can interest 
man. It unsettles the very groundwork of his faith. Such extra- 
ordinary statements are advanced, — such unexpected laws are 
developed in nature, — such mysterious facts are given, — that old- 
accustomed principles of belief are shaken to their centre, and 
the piety of the Christian trembles at the result. A startling con- 
sequence is at hand. If the facts of Mesmerism be not miracu- 
lous, — if they be no otherwise marvellous than as their strange- 
ness makes them so, and if custom will soon reduce this marvel- 
lousness to an every-day occurrence, how do all these positions 
bear upon the miracles related in Scripture 1 Are we not lower- 
ing their value ? Is not the very keystone on which our faith is 
built loosened, if not removed ? If the course of nature be not 
suspended by the action of Mesmerism, how can we show that 
the wonders of old time must fall back to the same shrunken pro- 
portions, and that the truths of Revelation do not totter at their 
base ? 

This is no unreal charge wantonly thrust forward for contro- 
versial display, and creating the very evil it professes to depre- 
cate ; but the expression of an actual living opinion which is 
beginning to assume a serious shape and being. It is no longer 
whispered in the salons of science that the tendencies of Mes- 
merism go to uphold the Deist in his unhappy belief, the proposi- 
tion is triumphantly advanced in the publications of the infidel ; 
and the Christian himself often feels an anxious misgiving which 
deters him from a bold investigation of the fact. The position 
has been strongly stated to me by the two opposite sects. " If," 
said a friend, " you really have faith in the reality of the wondrous 
cures of which you make mention, do you not see the dangerous 
ground you are treading ? You cannot stop where you will. If I 
believe in Mesmerism, I must disbelieve all that I have hitherto 
T 



98 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

held as sacred and divine." " Follow out your convictions," said 
a gentleman of the other school, " and flinch not at their conse- 
quence. The reputed miracles of Scripture were but the result 
of strong Mesmeric power. Christ only raised the dead by Mes- 
merism." And thus has it ever been in the history of the world. 
And thus has every new discovery been dreaded or vaunted, 
according to the respective point from which it has been viewed 
by the iriends and adversaries of religion. Thus was it with 
astronomy, with chemistry, with geology, with phrenology. The 
Bible speaks of the rising of the sun ; but Copernicus and Galileo 
were charged with upsetting the Bible, for they proved that the 
sun was the centre of its system, and consequently did not rise to 
gladden the earth. The theory of another hemisphere was here- 
tical for a season, and Columbus was in his turn taxed wdth weak- 
ening the validity of Scripture. Cuvier, in like manner, was 
treated as the antagonist of Moses ; and Gall was accused of lead- 
ing his followers to a belief in the coarsest materialism. And 
thus it went on for a season. Men trembled at the truth ; and the 
truth itself lay hid behind the mists of a partial knowledge and 
discovery. Soon, however, a brighter state of things came on. 
Profounder researches dispelled the anxiety of the timid. Faith 
and science were not found incompatible. Revelation and matter 
had but one and the same divine original. The first of philoso- 
phers were among the humblest of Christians ; and the most 
aspiring student of the laws of nature has not blushed to bow in 
lowliest adoration before the Word of Life. And thus will it be 
with Mesmerism. The discovery of this mighty power will 
form no exception to the other departments of science. He, who 
spake as never man spake, wrought also as man has never been 
able to imitate ; and while the Scriptural reader must find in his 
heart an eternal evidence of the truth of that book on which he 
places all his hopes, with the conviction that doctrines so pure, 
so lovely, could proceed from nothing short of a heavenly source, 
even so will he perceive in the miracles of his blessed Lord an 
inseparable pledge of the divinity of His mission, for that no one 
could do such things as Christ did, except God were with him ! 

What, then, it is asked, is the resemblance that exists between 
the miracles of the Saviour and the wonders of Mesmerism ? We 
answer, confidently, none whatever. An impassable gulf divides 
them. Both, indeed, proceed from the same Eternal Being ; but 
the Mesmeric phenomena are nothing else than a simple power 
in nature : while the marvels of Scripture arose from an interrup- 
tion of those laws by which the government of the universe has 
been administered from creation : and this position, with God's 
grace, I proceed to prove. 

I commence with a consideration of those miracles, to which 
the wildest dreams of the most enthusiastic Mesmeriser pretend 
not to have made approach. And here, it will be observed, we 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 99 

assume that the reader is a Christian, — that he believes that the 
facts recorded in the Gospels did take place and are true, and that 
his only question is, how far the Divine origin of these facts is 
shaken by what has occurred in these latter days. Into the mat- 
ter of evidence, therefore, we do not enter. Paley's incomparable 
work has exhausted the subject and refuted every doubt. To 
Paley, therefore, we refer the wavering heart. But our present 
inquiry is, whether there be any counter-claims on our attention, 
from facts evincing equal power, and supported by evidence 
equally conclusive.* 

The " beginning of miracles, with which Jesus manifested forth 
his glory," was the change of water into wine. He did not com- 
mand the six stone water-pots to be first emptied of the water, and 
then replenished them with wine ; but lie ordered the empty ves- 
sels to be previously filled with water ; and from these vessels, 
which were " filled up to the brim," the servants were instructed 
to draw forth, and bear to the governor of the feast ; and a quan- 
tity of water, being supposed, upon the smallest computation, to 
be above a hogshead, was discovered by the guests to be con- 
verted into wine. Mesmerism could have no agency here. The 
fact admits of no other explanation than that of being a miraculous 
and supernatural work. 

We next come to the miraculous draught of fishes. This oc- 
curred twice : once at the commencement of Christ's ministry, 
and once after his resurrection. Twice had the fishermen been 
toiling all night, and caught nothing. At the command of Jesus, 
they let down their nets, and inclose the first time so extraordi- 
nary a draught, that their nets brake, and their boats were begin- 
ning to sink. On the second occasion, they were hardly able to 
draw the net to land for the multitude and size of the fishes ; and 
yet it is mentioned by the Evangelist as an additional wonder, that 
the net was not broken. Now we cannot, perhaps, strictly de- 
scribe a fact like this as beyond nature, for such a thing might 
happen ; but it is not according to nature. Nothing like it has 
ever been seen, before or since. It is, therefore, contrary to the 
order of nature, — contrary to the general laws of nature. And 
when an event like this, which no natural causes have produced 
at any other time, occurred twice in the history of one man, we 
are justified in saying that it could be no peculiar or fortunate co- 
incidence, — but a preternatural fact, which can be classed under 
no other head than that of miraculous. 

The next miracle to be noticed is the instant stilling of a tem- 
pest on the Lake of Gennesareth,— a tempest so violent that the 
waves were breaking over the ship. Dr. E. Clarke in his travels 



• Those who are indisposed for the study of Paley's longer work, will find 
an admirable compendium uf the whole subject in a small volume called 
" Lectures on the Evidence of Miracles, ' by the Rev. R. C. Coxe, the present 
learned and excellent Vicar of Newcastle. (Rivingtons.) 



100 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

mentions, that when adverse winds, sweeping from the mountains 
with the force of a hurricane, meet the strong current of the wa- 
ters, which is formed by the river Jordan passing through the 
lake, a dangerous sea is at once raised. Now some such a hurri- 
cane Christ and his disciples encountered ; and he stilled it in a 
moment ; for there was a " great calm." The " raging of the wa- 
ter" and the violence of the winds subsided at once. Now this 
was clearly miraculous. By a singular accident, the wind might 
have been suddenly hushed at the very same moment that Jesus 
spoke, but this fortuitous calm would not also have extended to 
the waters. Whoever has been to sea, or whoever has witnessed 
a storm at sea, knows full well that it requires a certain interval 
of time for the waves to cease to swell after the winds have ceased 
to blow. It is never a great hurricane in one moment, and a 
glassy surface in the next. The fishermen unaccustomed to such 
a transition, " marvelled," as well they might, and demanded among 
themselves " what manner of man " Christ was. And the only an- 
swer is, a Man from God ! Where is Mesmerism here ? 

The feeding of great multitudes on two occasions with a few 
loaves and fishes, surpasses all bounds of exaggeration also. There 
could be no false perception here. The statement does not admit 
of the supposition of a fortunate experiment. As Leslie says, 
that " one small loaf of bread should be so multiplied in the break- 
ing, as not only in appearance and to the eye, but truly and really 
to satisfy the appetites of a thousand hungry persons, and that the 
fragments should be much more than the bread was at first," is a 
fact which can admit of no explanation. And while we do not 
know the precise point at which the powers of nature terminate, 
as in the case of Mesmerism, we can declare unhesitatingly, that 
such a multiplication of food is beyond the reach of a natural 
cause, and that here we have again a manifest interposition of the 
power of God. 

The walking upon the sea is a plain fact which admits of no 
explanation. It is a statement in which there could be neither 
mistake nor exaggeration. The ship was " in the midst of the 
sea," and he walked to them. He " walked upon the sea." The 
ship was twenty or thirty furlongs distant from the shore, i. e. 
more than three miles, and he walked to them. St. Peter also 
walked upon the sea to meet him, and, " beginning to sink," was 
saved by Jesus catching him by the arm. The miracle is men- 
tioned by three Evangelists and most fully by St. Matthew. The 
same word in the original, which is used by St. Mark, in his sixth 
chapter (verse 47), for describing Jesus as being " on the land," 
is used by him and St. John> when they speak of him as walking 
" on the sea." No statement in the New Testament will admit of 
a closer or more critical examination than will this. And what 
confirms the miraculous character of the action is the fact, that the 
disciples seem to have been more impressed by this than by any 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS 101 

preceding miracle, for they " worshipped" him, St. Matthew says, 
in consequence, and declared that " of a truth he was the Son of 
God." 

The Transfiguration of the Saviour is a fact, also, which ad- 
mits of no softening explanation. It happened not at night but in 
broad day ; — not in a corner, — but on the very top of a mountain. 
The brightness and glory were more than the faculties of the 
spectators were able to endure. A celestial voice was heard, 
speaking to Jesus. The disciples were so overpowered with all 
that took place, that they flung themselves with their faces on the 
ground, and so remained till the Saviour touched them and bade 
them rise. And St. Peter expressly refers to the wonders of this 
dav, as a special proof that the Gospel was " no cunningly devised 
fable." 

The drying up of the fig-tree is a fact to which no Mesmeric 
power makes the most distant approach. Jesus spoke, and the 
fig-tree withered away instantly from the roots. " How soon" 
said the disciples, " is this tree withered !" 

The raising of the dead on three distinct occasions is explained 
by the modern unbeliever as the revival of a sleeping person out 
of a trance. The different facts of each case put together contra- 
dict the opinion. Jesus meets the dead son of the widow of Nain, 
humanly speaking by accident, as he is carried out on his bier. 
He at once approaches and bids the young man arise ; " and he 
that was dead sat up, and began to speak." Now, on the suppo- 
sition that the mother and the numerous friends of this young man 
(for " much peopl® " were in attendance, and the body was not in- 
closed in a coffin, but carried openly on a litter, as is the way in 
the East), on the supposition that all were deceived, and that the 
young man was only entranced, can we suDpose, with any degree 
of reason, that in the two remaining instances the relations and 
domestics were also under a delusion ? Let us take, then, the case 
of the ruler's daughter. Jesus is suddenly invited by Jairus to his 
house to heal his child. In the mean time death seizes his vic- 
tim ; and so undeniable are the signs of dissolution, that the family 
are anxious that Jesus should retire and be no further inconve- 
nienced. " Trouble not the master, for she is dead." It would 
be a singular coincidence if this also was a trance. But Jesus, 
before he has even entered the house or even seen the body, pro- 
nounces that the maiden shall live and be " made whole." But 
we have a third instance : the raising of Lazarus. Lazarus had 
been in his grave four days. When the stone was removed from 
the cave, and as soon as Jesus spoke, that moment Lazarus came 
forth bound hand and foot in grave clothes, and his face fastened 
over with a napkin. The restoration was instantaneous and com- 
plete, lie did not merely move, and speak, and die again. He did 
not gradually and with further assistance come to himself; but he 
whose corpse was supposed to be already in an offensive state of 



102 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

decay, walked forth at once from the tomb, returned home to his 
family, and lived and was seen alive a long time after. Now, 
upon an examination of the above, this train of questions suggests 
itself. What probability is there, that all the attendants and rela- 
tives in these three cases were equally under a deception ? Is it 
meant that all who die are only in a trance ; and if not, what rea- 
son is there to show that these three persons were exclusively 
in a trance more than any others ? How should Jesus, if only 
a man, know before he had even seen them, that Lazarus and the 
ruler's daughter were only entranced ? Supposing after all that 
they had been dead, and did not rise forth, would not the power of 
Jesus have been proved null and void 1 The same remark applies 
to the son of the widow of Nain. Jesus, as a mere man, dared 
not have risked the chances of a failure, unless it be said that a 
trance is a more common occurrence than a death. The unbe- 
liever, however, says that these three persons were not really 
dead, but only in appearance. From their own statement, here 
were three of the most curious coincidences, — and all in the course 
of two years. The mere recurrence of the fact refutes the theory. 
This is the dilemma : if they were really dead, none but a divine 
power could raise them, and that by a miracle ; — if they were only 
entranced, how could Jesus, if but a mere man, know it? and not 
knowing it of a certainty, how would he venture on the hazardous 
experiment of placing his reputation on the issue of such a 
chance 1 Never was a hypothesis built on a more untenable po- 
sition. 

We will not enter upon an examination of the question that 
naturally presents itself in the next place, as to whether the 
Saviour was himself also in a trance. No one fact is better 
established in the whole Gospel history, than the re-appearance 
of Christ after the crucifixion. If that fact be not true, there is an 
end of human evidence for ever. Was He also, we ask then, in 
a trance when hanging on the cross, and when laid in the tomb 
by Joseph of Arimathea? The question answers itself: it is too 
monstrous to need refutation. 

Here, then, we have examined in detail a class of miracles in 
the New Testament, to which the proudest results of the Mesme- 
ric power offer not the most distant resemblance. And let no one 
say, that this examination was idle, — that it is foreign to the sub- 
ject, — that we " fight, as one that beateth the air." Nothing is 
useless, by which the faith of the believer may be strengthened, 
and the misgivings of the anxious heart be quenched as they rise. 
The question of Scripture evidence* has within these few years 



* " Christian Truth," says Dr. Hawkins, the present learned Provost of 
Oriel College, when speaking of the examination of the Christian Evidences, 
— " is a subject ever new, and of the deepest interest to each individual man 
in each successive generation." — Bampton Lectures, p. 225. 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 103 

shifted ground. The charge of enthusiasm, of exaggeration, of 
falsehood, is now seldom heard. A new position is adopted by 
the opponent. The facts recorded in the Gospels are at once ad- 
mitted, — their narrators are allowed to be truthful intelligent men, 
— but the wonders they relate are referred to the operation of an 
adequate natural cause, — a cause of which the spectators had not 
then the remotest suspicion, but which is amply sufficient to 
explain their existence and effect. This natural cause, they say, 
is Mesmerism. The facts are old, but the principle is newly dis- 
covered. And knowing myself that Mesmerism is a living reali- 
ty, — knowing that its powers reach to an unsuspected extent, — ■ 
knowing that the faith of many has been disturbed by this dis- 
covery, I have thought it essential to analyse the question closely, 
and place the subject in its true colors. If I could not say how 
far Mesmerism does go, I have at least shown how far it does not 
go. The inquiry has commenced by an examination of facts, to 
which no approximation, even in the faintest degree, has ever 
been made by the Mesmeric power. If the matter stopped here, 
sufficient would have been said to prove the Divine Mission of the 
Lord Jesus, and to show that He was a teacher sent from God. 
But we now proceed to an investigation into those miracles of a 
curative character, to which a greater resemblance with this new 
power is supposed to exist. 

And here it is at once asserted, that the Mesmeric cures 
are something very extraordinary. For the convenience of the 
present argument, we do not fall back from that position. They 
have often been most wonderful. The treatment has often and 
often been efficacious, where no other remedy could succeed. 
This is admitted in the fullest and most unequivocal manner. In- 
dependent, moreover, of the general power, which is common in 
a degree to most men, certain persons have been physically gifted 
with a peculiar virtue of a very unusual character. A denial of 
the fact cannot alter it. The evidence on this point is too 
authentic to be questioned. Valentine Greatrakes, an Irish gen- 
tleman who lived in the seventeenth century, — De Loutherbourgh, 
the well-known painter, Gassner, a Roman Catholic priest in 
Suabia, an English gardener named Levret, and several other 
parties could all be mentioned, whose powers of cure by manipu- 
lation and magnetic action were something very peculiar. Their 
patients were most numerous. All sorts of diseases were relieved 
by them. The then Bishop of Derry, speaking of Greatrakes, 
says, " There is something in the power more than ordinary." Still 
with the very largest allowance for the extent and variety of the 
effects, they all fall very far short of being miraculous ; — they all 
fall very far short of the Gospel wonders. " The cure often did 
not succeed, but by reiterated touches ; the patients often relaps- 
ed ; he failed frequently ; he can do nothing where there is any 
decay in nature, and many distempers are not at all obedient to 



104 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

his touch." This was said of Greatrakes ; and the same applies 
to every other Mesmerist of whom I have ever heard. The most 
successful practitioner has never laid claim to the possession 
of an infallible and universal power. He has never pledged him- 
self beforehand, in every possible case to produce a cure. If he 
have succeeded in ninety-nine cases, he has failed in the 
hundredth. If he have procured a lasting benefit in many 
patients, the relief is often but temporary in others. Here, then, 
in the first place, is the wide and immeasurable internal that sepa- 
rates the wonders of the Mesmeriser from the marvels of the Re- 
deemer of Israel. No one ever sought His face in vain. No one 
ever went unto Him, and was cast out unrelieved. The word of 
promise that went forth from His lips, never returned unto Him 
void. His language was decisive and with authority ; His touch 
was in its effect certain, foreknown, invariable ; His sanative 
power extended to every pain, — to every complication of disease. 
Nothing can be more decisive than the testimony of Scripture on 
this point. To use Paley's happy expresson, there was nothing 
tentative or experimental in the manner. " There is nothing in 
the Gospel narrative," says he, " which can allow us to believe, 
that Christ attempted cures in many instances, and succeeded in 
a few ; or that he ever made the attempt in vain." And the Gos- 
pel history confirms this position. " He healed all that were 
sick." (Matt. c. viii. v. 16.) St. Luke says that "All they that 
had any sick with divers diseases brought them unto him : and he 
laid his hands on every one of them and healed them" (c. iv. 
v. 40). St. Matthew again says that "He went about all Galilee, 
— healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among 
the people." " And they brought unto him all sick people, that 
were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which 
were lunatic and those that had the palsy, and he healed them" 
(c. iv. vv. 23, 24). Again we read, that " great multitudes came 
unto him, having with them those that were lame, blind, dumb, 
maimed, and many others, and cast them down at Jesus' feet, and 
he healed them" (Matt. c. xv. v. 30). There was no exception 
that we read of, in any instance. Here, then, in the first place is 
one distinguishing characteristic of the Christian cures, the uni- 
versality of the success, wherever the attempt was made. 

We now come, in the next place, to a second and most material 
distinction, the class of cures effected by either party. In Mes- 
merism, the diseases subdued have been of a very remarkable 
character ; tic-doloureux, fearful epileptic fits, brain fever, de- 
rangement, deafness, weakness in the eyes, neuralgic pains of all 
kinds, loss of voice, paralysis, fevers, and a variety of other disor- 
ders ; cures have been effected where all other means have failed ; 
still all these fall immeasurably short of the miraculous effects 
recorded in Scripture. — Cures of a far higher order are there 
related ; cures, where the limbs or members had been organically 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS, 105 

injured, — cures where the injury had dated from the birth of the 
party. And here to mark the difference more strongly, it is 
necessary to introduce a third and even greater distinction, viz., 
the period of time in which the benefit was produced. In Mes- 
merism the relief has been often most rapid ; in a quarter of 
an hour pain has begun to give way, and has been even expelled ; 
in a first sitting a disorder has been removed ; yet, even rapid as 
has been the therapeutic power of the Mesmeriser, it is idle 
to compare it to the instantaneous, — to the magical change that 
followed on the touch and the voice of the Saviour. Christ 
" spake the word," and quicker than thought a complete revolution 
took place in the brain, in the blood, or in the structure of the 
sufferer. What was wanting, was supplied ; what was weakened, 
was renewed ; what was broken, was made whole ; and that, too, 
in an instant of time. In the twinkling of an eye, a mass of 
diseased and putrifying sores became " as the flesh of a little 
child," in the bloom of health. The combination is very noticea- 
ble, and marks the miraculous character. In Mesmerism I have 
heard of more than one instance, where a rheumatism of many 
years standing has been cured at the first stance, as soon as the 
magnetic medium had passed into the patient's system ; perhaps 
even greater and more expeditious effects may be named : still, 
let them be compared to the miracles of the New Testament in 
regard to the class of diseases and the instantaneous character of 
the cure, and what resemblance is there 1 

Peters wife's mother is confined to her bed with a fever ; Christ 
takes her by the hand ; the fever immediately leaves her ; no las- 
situde, the usual consequence of feverish action, remains ; for she 
arises and ministers to them at their meat. 

Eleven specific cases of a cure of leprosy are recorded. The 
leprosy is a disease beyond all description fearful ; by some it is 
thought incurable. The skin and flesh are one mass of corruption. 
To effect a cure, therefore, a change must first take place in the 
whole current of the blood. In the first cure related, the leprosy 
" immediately departed." In the cases of the other ten lepers, 
they were all cured, at once, on their quitting Jesus, and in their 
way to the priests. 

Many important cures of paralysis are mentioned. One in par- 
ticular is specified, where the sufferer was so completely deprived 
of the use of his limbs as to be carried by four men. He is cured 
instantly that Jesus speaks, and walks off, carrying bis bed. 

A cripple, who had been suffering from his infirmity and loss of 
limbs for thirty-eight years, — and a poor woman, who had been 
bent double for eighteen years, are both cured at once. The lat- 
ter " was immediately made straight." The former was " unmedi- 
atelp made whole, and took up his bed and walked."' 

What can be a more hopeless state, than a dry withered limb ? 
Nature seems dead in the part. All power is gone. A man with 



106 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 



a withered hand comes to Christ : he is ordered to stretch it out, 
and " it is restored whole as the other." 

Mesmerism has been of signal service in deafness, in blindness, 
and where the voice has been injured ; but the benefit has been 
obtained by degrees ; and in no instance has a cure been produced 
where the privation has arisen from a structural defect, commenc- 
ing with the birth. Several cases are mentioned in Scripture of 
cures of blindness, — of blindness " from birth," — of deafness and 
dumbness united from birth, — of deafness and impediment in the 
speech, — and so on, where the cure was instantaneous, and follow- 
ing the touch. In one case of blindness, the cure was effected 
more gradually ; still it was cured, — and half an hour, or an hour 
at the most, was the time occupied from the sufferer's first inter- 
view with Jesus, before his eyes were " restored and that he saw 
every man clearly." To compare any of the benefits procured by 
Mesmerism, with those marvellous cures of blindness and deaf- 
ness, would be an absurdity, which none but those who have not 
studied them closely, would dream of committing. 

Among other instantaneous cures, we may mention that of a 
woman with an issue of blood of twelve years' duration, who came 
behind, and without the (humanly speaking) knowledge of Jesus, 
touched his garment, and was cured directly ; that of a boy with 
violent epileptic fits ; and that of the servant whose ear was cut 
off, the wound of which was at once healed by the touch of Jesus. 

It may be as well to add, that in the xvth of Matthew, verse 30, 
where the Evangelist speaks of the " lame and maimed" being 
brought to Jesus, and of the " lame walking," and the " maimed 
being made whole," some of the best commentators are of opi- 
nion, that the word which in our translation is rendered " maimed," 
signifies those who had not merely lost the use of their limbs, as 
the lame, — but even the limbs themselves ; and that those deficient 
limbs were replaced, and the sufferers " made whole." Be this 
as it may, here is a succession of cures, standing out in pre-emi- 
nent majesty, both in the nature of the disease and the sudden- 
ness of the relief, — far — far above any that the annals of Magnet- 
ism can adduce, with a line of demarcation between them so 
broad and insuperable, that the most trembling Christian need not 
dread the faintest approximation. 

A fourth distinguishing mark, attendant upon the cures related 
in the Gospel, is the permanency of their effect. There is no 
Teason to suspect from the slightest phrase that drops from any of 
the New Testament writers, nor from any charge that was ad- 
vanced by the unbeliever, that the benefit was not as lasting as it 
was complete. No one can assert the same of all our Mesmeric 
cures. Many are indeed permanent ; but with a large number the 
action requires to be renewed at intervals, especially in some dis- 
eases that are of a chronic kind. 



MESMERISM AND ITS- OPPONENTS-. 10T 

Still the unbeliever replies, that Christ performed all his cures 
by the " touch." " They brought unto him those that were sick 
with divers diseases, and he laid his hands on every one of them 
and healed them," It was the Mesmeric " touch," they assert. 
Though there was no manipulating process adopted, still the Mes- 
meric power was possessed by him to such an unusual and ex- 
cessive degree, that the mere touch was sufficient. That a virtue 
accompanied the touch of the Saviour is admitted. It is, in fact, 
the very thing we assert. The question is whether that touch 
was divine or human ; whether the touch of any other human be- 
ing, not recorded in Scripture, ever wrought out the same effects ? 
Supposing, even as some think, that the touch was Mesmeric, only 
exerted to a supernatural degree, the result would not be less of a 
miracle. If God brings out a latent power in nature, and exer- 
cises it to an extent of which man is incapable, though the virtue 
itself be part of nature's forces, still its employment to this ex- 
treme degree would be an interference with our physical laws, 
and therefore strictly preternatural. This is the distinction be- 
tween an energy that is ordinary, or extra-ordinary. The former 
may be very wonderful, but the latter is miraculous. And certain- 
ly, in confirmation of this view, it must be said that God works by 
means. To judge from analogy, He does not create a fresh power, 
where sufficient in nature already exists. When the Red Sea 
was divided by a miracle, though dry land could have been pro- 
duced at once by the simple word of his power, He rather caused 
the waters to go back by the effect of a strong east wind, which 
He called into unusual action for the occasion. And thus it may 
be with Mesmerism : Christ may have exercised alatent Mesmeric 
power to an extra and miraculous extent. For instance, when 
the poor woman with an issue of blood, touched him secretly, and 
Jesus said that he " perceived that virtue was gone out of him," 
He may have meant that a supernatural portion of that magnetic 
virtue, which is imparted in a greater or less degree to every hu- 
man being, had escaped from Him and caused the benefit. I men- 
tion this in deference to the views of others, rather than as ex- 
pressing my own opinion. In changing water into wine, or in 
multiplying five loaves to feed five thousand, there would appear a 
species of divine power exerted, having no connection whatever 
with this quality of " touch." His touch, therefore, may not have 
been meant for a medium of communication. It may simply have 
been an external action, identifying himself with the cure, and at- 
tracting the attention of the party more especially towards him. 
Moreover, Jesus did not always touch the sick. In the cure of 
the sick of the palsy, of the cripple, of the withered hand, of the 
boy with epileptic fits, no mention is made of the " laying on of 
hands." And this brings us to a fifth and very remarkable dis- 
tinction, the cure of three sick persons immediately and at a dis- 
tance, whither this assumed Mesmeric virtue could not possibly 



108 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS, 

except by miracle, extend. Nothing in the annals of Mesmerism 
has a parallel to this. I certainly know of some instances, where 
a strong sanative and soothing power has been cdmmunicated at 
a distance by the transmission of a highly Mesmerised material, 
and from which the benefit has been at present permanent. But 
this curative effect was the work of weeks, of months, of long in- 
cessant application. Let us, on the other hand, turn to the three 
cases recorded in Scripture. The first was the cure of a noble- 
man's son, who was dying of a fever, at the distance of more 
than twenty miles. The disease left him at the very hour in 
which Jesus said " Thy son liveth." The second is the cure of 
the Centurion's servant, who was sick of a palsy and " ready to 
die," who " was healed in the self-same hour that Jesus spoke," 
without his passing under the roof. The third was the recovery 
of the daughter of the woman of Canaan, at once and at a distance, 
by the mere word and command of Jesus. Whatever the sickness 
was, whether derangement or epileptic fits, it matters not ; the 
fact was, she was cured, and cured without touch or even approxi- 
mation of the Saviour. 

Here then are five characteristics, which especially distinguish 
the curative miracles of Christ, and separate them from any re- 
semblance to even the highest order of Mesmeric power. 

1. The cure was universal. 

2. The diseases were more desperate, and in some cases or- 
ganic. 

3. The cure was instantaneous. 

4. The cure was permanent. 

5. The cure was occasionally performed at a distance. 

One other quality may be mentioned : the power was trans- 
missive. The Apostles were invested with the same virtue to an 
equal degree. This can in no wise be said of those who possess- 
ed that peculiar healing power that we before alluded to. This 
cannot be said of Gassner, of Greatrakes, of De Loutherbourgh, 
or of others. The power died with them. It was not imparted 
to followers or friends. Not so in the Christian dispensation: 
the Disciples were empowered equally "to lay hands on the 
sick," and the promise was, " and they shall recover." We read 
of " many wonders and signs being done by the Apostles." We 
read of a " multitude out of the cities round about Jerusalem bring- 
ing sick folks to the Apostles, and they were healed every one !" 
More especially we are told of the cure by Peter and John of the 
impotent man in the f temple, that was lame from his birth, whose 
ankle-bones and feet received strength immediately : of the cripple 
at Lystra, " who had never walked" from his birth, and also stood 
up at once and leaped, at the mere word of St. Paul ; and of the 
father of Publius, who lay sick of a fever and was healed by the 
same Apostle. Other wonders might be named \ but this is suffi- 
cient to enable us to ask this question, If Christ only wrought his 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 109 

cures by the exercise of the same natural power that Gassner and 
others employed, why was he able to transmit the same virtue to 
his followers, while with Gassner and Greatrakes no successor 
appeared 1 

" But," says the anxious inquirer, ." you have at present made 
no allusion to the most wondrous parts of Mesmerism. Clair- 
voyance^ internal vision, the predictive faculty, are all passed over; 
aud these are the phenomena that more than any partake of the 
miraculous character." 

Of the predictive faculty there is some difficulty in speaking, 
Many remarkable facts have certainly been stated, on the most 
respectable authority ; and he would be a bold and hasty man 
who should presume to reject them, without having fully certified > 
himself as to the defect in their evidence. But, strange as some 
of these predictions appear, to place them in the same category 
with the prophetic writings of the Old Testament, — to compare 
them with the fulfilment of facts which had been predicted hun- 
dreds of years before, is preposterous. They somewhat approach 
the character of the stories of second-sight among the Scotch. It 
would be difficult to discredit all the anecdotes that are related 
under that head ; and many other singular predictions havo 
occurred in the history of the human mind, to which different 
medical and metaphysical works have referred. How far, in cer- 
tain states of diseases,, the mind becomes more spiritual and 
acquires a peculiar character of exaltation and of subtle judgment, 
so as to decide more clearly as to the probability of an event, I 
leave to physiologists to determine. Such, at any rate, is my 
own opinion. Still, all this, even at the best, is widely different 
from the prophetic character. The anticipation of an event, a 
few weeks previously, is very remote from a prediction of several 
centuries ; and, in fact, this sort of foresight bears no more relation 
to ancient prophecy, than do the wonderful cures of the Mesmeriser 
to the miraculous effects recorded in the GospeL . 

Of clairvoyance, or the faculty of seeing through opaque bodies, 
of reading without the use of the eyes, and so forth, wonderful as 
these facts appear at first, and utterly discredited as they are by 
many who believe in the other marvels of Mesmerism, it is not 
needful to say so much as might be expected, for two reasons. 

First, they bear no resemblance whatsoever to anything recorded 
in Scripture. Nothing of the kind is mentioned in the Gospel his- 
tory as one of its miracles. Qhrist never appealed to any such 
fact, as a proof of his divine legation. 

But, secondly, however wonderful or incredible they may ap- 
pear, there is not one single fact of this nature, occurring in the 
Mesmeric state ; but the same or a similar fact has been found to 
exist, spontaneously, in the condition of natural somnambulism. 
Those who will study the subject, will see this assertion unequi- 
vocally proved. I have given this statement before. In certain 



110 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

stages of extreme or peculiar disease, nature has found a vent, by 
throwing the patient into a normal condition. In this condition 
very singular phenomena have appeared. Very many cases* 
could be cited of clairvoyance in that particular state. In these 
cases, Mesmerism was unknown to the parties, or was not applied 
artificially. These phenomena were the result of hysteria or na- 
tural Mesmerism. At any rate, they appeared spontaneously and 
in a state of disease ; and as such they relieve the Mesmeric 
wonders of the character of the supernatural, and bring them 
down to the level of ordinary occurrences ; and any comparison, 
therefore, between the latter and the miracles of Scripture, would 
be misplaced and superfluous. 

I trust that the anxious and the scrupulous may now feel more 
assured on this important subject ; and perceive the wide distinc- 
tion that exists in the matter. The question is capable of a much 
more detailed analysis, and of receiving a fuller and more conclu- 
sive proof. But enough, and perhaps more than enough, has been 
stated ; much, too, that is wearisome, much that is old, much that 
is self-evident. But I seek not to please a sect, or give know- 
ledge to the well-instructed. This little book is for the use of the 
ignorant or the timid ; and while I am anxious by its publication 
to " do good unto all men," I more especially write for the 
" household of faith." Many amiable and virtuous minds have 
been deterred from giving Mesmerism that candid trial which its 
importance deserves, from no other feeling than a silent, unuttered 
fear as to its bearing on Revelation. To say that such a feeling 
is not right, — that a love of truth ought to be predominant at all 
hazards, is easy of utterance, and perhaps correct in reality. Still, 
it is a feeling that deserves respect. And it is to meet this feel- 
ing, and remove these scruples, that the materials of this Chapter 
have been put together. How far they may be successful time 
will show. That there was a necessity for the attempt, there 
cannot be a question. And my hope is, that many a perplexed 
and doubting heart, whose faith had been staggered for a little 
season at the presumed mysteriousness of our new science, may 
be led to a more accurate understanding of its relative merits ; 
and comparing natural things with things that are really super- 
human, may see more clearly the transcendant superiority of all 
that has been related of Christ, beyond any antagonistic claims 
affecting equal power ; and, with a belief more and more strength- 
ened by a diligent and prayerful investigation of the truth, may be 
enabled in all sincerity with Nathaniel to exclaim, " Rabbi, Thou 
art the Son of God ! Thou art the King of Israel !" 



See Appendix. 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. Ill 



CHAPTER VIL 

But though Mesmerism does not shake, in the most distant- 
degree, the belief of the intelligent Christian in the reality or 
Scripture miracles, it furnishes the Philosopher with a useful clue 
towards the understanding of much that has hitherto been mysteri- 
ous. In the history of man, many facts have been recorded, of 
which a clear explanation has yet been wanting. In all ages of 
the world, we have had a succession of marvels, at which the 
ignorant have been alarmed, the wise have been staggered, and 
the superstitious excited. False prophets, pretended miracles, 
wonder-working saints have, from time to time, arisen, disturbing 
and deceiving the very elect. Though heathenism and idolatry 
have had their prodigies in abundance, to the authority of which 
their votaries have appealed in confirmation of their creed, the 
Church of Christ has been more especially rife with pretensions 
of the same order. The charge of trick and delusion on these 
occasions has been advanced in every generation ; sometimes 
correctly, — not unfrequently, however, with inconsiderate haste. 
The unbeliever has detected much that was false ; the scientific 
have traced much to the effect of imagination ; and so the incon- 
sequential conclusion has been adopted through convenience, that 
imposture was at the foundation of all the rest. And yet to those 
who had impartially examined the various recorded statements, 
this summary decision was not always satisfactory. A miracle, 
or miraculous train of incidents, is, for example, announced. 
After a time an inquiry is pursued. The sceptic and the unpre- 
judiced take the question up. A mass of falsehood and folly is 
discovered ; and yet, after a large deduction on that head, there 
often u remained a residuum of something strange and perplexing " 
to the most philosophic. Of course, all this was, in the end, 
placed to the account of " imagination,'' and so the question was 
disposed of for a season ; but the real analysis of the difficulty 
was incomplete and partial. 

Most divisions of the Church have, in their turn, appealed to 
their own especial marvel. A miracle has not been wanting to 
prove the most opposite doctrines. Wherever there has been the 
coarsest ignorance, there has generally been the greatest prodigy : 
and the number of these " lying wonders" has been in proportion, 
not so much to the quality of the faith, as to the enthusiasm of the 
party, and the multitude and character of the respective followers. 
As Bacon says, in his Advancement of Learning, "This facility 
of credit, and accepting or admitting things weakly authorized or 



112 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

warranted, hath too easily registered reports and narrations of 
miracles wrought by martyrs, hermits, and other holy men, which, 
though they had a passage for a time by the ignorance of the peo- 
ple, the superstitious simplicity of some, and the politic toleration 
of others, — yet,, after a period, when the mist began to clear up, 
they grew to be esteemed but as old wives' fables, impostures of 
the clergy, and illusions of spirits, to the great scandal and detri- 
ment of religion." 

One goint, however, is deserving of notice. Whatever accu- 
mulation of falsehood has been super-added in the progress, the 
original fact, from which the pretended miracle has taken its rise, 
has in general been a genuine and undoubted occurrence, for which 
a natural or secondary cause may be discovered. Most corrupt 
as is human nature, this statement may be adopted with but occa- 
sional exceptions. Nor is it difficult to follow out a transaction of 
the kind, till it altogether assumes the color of complete imposture. 
A singular fact occurs in a secluded spot, and amongst an igno- 
rant population. It is soon spoken of as supernatural. The first 
to visit and inquire into the details is the spiritual pastor of the 
flock. He hears much that is incomprehensible to him. But lit- 
tle removed in intelligence above his own superstitious congrega- 
tion, he adopts their theory, and sees with their eyes. The fact 
becomes a miracle with him. God hns visited his people ; and 
as the especial minister of God he takes the management of the 
case under his peculiar care. Nothing has thus far occurred but 
what is fair and natural. Soon, however, a temptation assails him ; 
for the admiration of the populace begins to flag ; the wonder is 
ceasing to be wonderful. The good man fears that the salutary 
check upon sin and immorality, which the suddenness of the mar- 
vel had effected in his neighborhood, is losing its charm. A little 
excitement is necessary : a small additional wonder, therefore, is 
ingeniously brought out. The success is complete : the credit of 
the miracle resumes its hold ; the power of religion takes deeper 
root : and thus the supposed goodness of the object, and the real 
benefits of the deception, warp his judgment and lead him on. 
The same round, however, must again be shortly run. And thus, 
step by step, the pious fraud grows beneath his hand ; uninten- 
tional deceptions are added in virtue's spite ; the man himself has 
become rather what " he cannot change, than what he chooses ;" — 
and at last the original wonder has swelled into a monstrous amount 
of wickedness and imposture ; and religion and the cause of truth 
are perilled by the detection. 

Now, for many of these marvellous occurrences, Mesmerism 
can afford a natural explanation. From my own experience, I 
can state that very many facts, which have been accepted as 
miraculous, and secured the wonder of a superstitious multitude, 
have been but the transcript of the same class of incidents as 
have occurred within the walls of my own house. Natural Som- 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 113 

nambulism, and Mesmerism artificially induced (for they are both 
but different phases of the same condition), will explain many 
points of the " supernatural" which were previously inexplicable 
to the inquirer. Nor is it necessary, on all occasions, to assume 
that any additional prodigies have been appended to the first won- 
der. Oftentimes the whole transaction has seemed, on Mesmeric 
principles, nothing but a probable and natural chain of facts : good 
faith and honesty of purpose have prevailed throughout ; — the ori- 
ginal marvel remained as it began ; and a charge of imposition 
would be wanton and unphilosophical. 

More often, however, the temptation to deceive has been too 
successful for sinful man. His unconquerable love of spiritual 
power has acted fatally on the evil propensity within. And where 
this power could be maintained by the encouragement, or conni- 
vance, — -or practice of deceit, the Old Adam has too generally 
surrendered to the seduction. This is the fact, with all creeds 
and all religiouists. It is monstrous to make this an exclusive 
charge against one particular Church. That a greater variety of 
pious frauds has been detected among the priesthood of the Rom- 
ish church is referable to the fact, that their sway has been most 
predominant during the darkest ages of Christianity. As Arch- 
bishop Whateley says in one of the most useful of his works, " The 
Origin of Romish Errors," — " This tendency to fraudulent means 
is not peculiar to any sect, age, or country — it is the spontaneous 
growth of the corrupt soil of man's heart." 

In illustration of the above, a fact can be stated on the best au- 
thority. I received it from a lady, whose name I am not at liber- 
ty to mention, — but whose position in society and in the literary 
world is a guarantee for the correctness of the story. She receiv- 
ed it from a sister of the patient, and was herself well acquainted 
with the names and residence of the parties. An invalid had for 
seven years lost the use of his legs, it is believed, by rheumatism. 
A Wesleyan minister in the neighbourhood, who had discovered 
in himself the power of relieving pain by the Mesmeric process, 
long however before Mesmerism had become generally known, 
called upon the sufferer, — offered to do all he could to heal him, 
and said that "he hoped to be as useful to him as the Prophet Eli- 
sha." The man, of course, was but too willing to place himself 
in his hands. And after a succession of manipulations, a genial 
warmth came on, followed by a complete restoration of the limbs. 
In short, the sufferer was wonderfully cured. The immediate 
cause, we now know, was Mesmerism ; for such results are not 
uncommon ; but the thing was inscrutable to all around, and was 
deemed miraculous by the patient and many of his friends. The 
Wesleyan minister was regarded by the ignorant populace as a 
prophet, or, as Bacon expresses it, a " holy man," in conse- 
quence ; and as his spiritual influence was mightily increased by 
the transaction, our good preacher winked at the delusion, — but in 
8 



114 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

reality was more of a deceiver than many a calumniated monk in 
the church of Rome. 

But it is on that class of strange appearances, which has receiv- 
ed the name of the Devotional Ecstasis, that Mesmerism throws 
an especial light. In all ages, heathen and Christian, a peculiar 
species of physiological effect has been observed, from time to 
time, to present itself in young and sickly females, — which has 
assumed the character of the miraculous or the divine. Sibyls, 
prophetesses, inspired priestesses, ecstatic dreamers, magical 
maids, devout nuns, entranced females, have all followed in suc- 
cession, and received their particular appellation from the acci- 
dent of the country or religion that claimed them, and of which 
they became the temporary boast. All these female prodigies 
have invariably been regarded as divinely commissioned ; and 
while their symptoms, language, attitude, and dreams have all 
partaken of one uniform character, the doctrines they have upheld, 
have been as opposite as the poles. Disease was the secret of the 
whole matter. I do not believe that one single instance of this 
class of ancient or modern miracles can be adduced, in which the 
party had not been originally, and often for a long time, in a most 
unhealthy condition. Let this fact be followed out, and it will be 
found correct. In this diseased state, nature often relieves itself 
by throwing the patient into an hysteric and sleeping state. This 
somnambulistic condition is nothing else than Mesmerism sponta- 
neously produced, — as the symptoms and phenomena clearly indi- 
cate. They are but one and the same ; with this difference, that 
in artificial Mesmerism, a sympathy with the Mesmeriser is su- 
peradded, and a curative action obtained. I do not mean, that 
these peculiar phenomena occur in every case of Mesmerism ; on 
the contrary, they are very rare : but when they do take place, 
they are so precisely similar in their character and affection to 
what, occurs in common somnambulism, that no material difference 
exists between them. Of course, as in the natural ecstasis, they 
are not all equally marked ; some are stronger in one point than 
in another ; some are of a very short duration ; some are very 
beautiful ; some are very painful to witness ; still they all belong 
to one family ; and whether resulting from a natural or artificial 
ection, may universally be traced to the working of disease. The 
very same phenomena, which I have myself witnessed in the case 
Of Anne Vials, and which have occurred with her over and over 
again, have been brought forward as proofs of the miraculous na- 
ture of several appearances in different entranced females. Dr. 
Elliotson, in the fourth number of the " Zoist," mentions a similar 
Case in one of his patients, where a beautiful ecstatic fit of holy 
rapture was brought on in the Mesmeric trance, and which amongst 
an ignorant people might have been used for any superstitious pur- 
pose. I shall refer presently to a third and different case, where, 
in the magnetic sleep, the patient is invested with an apparently 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 115 

prophetic character, — -and a species of divine knowledge seems to 
be conferred upon her. In all these cases, natural or artificially 
induced, there is almost always, during the period of the parox- 
ysm, a very great exaltation of the intellectual faculties, an unusual 
clearness of mind, — -a high tone of moral feeling, — a spirituality 
not only in appearance but in language, and occasionally that pe- 
culiar power of foreseeing the probable result of certain circum- 
stances then in action, which, when the effect corresponds with 
the expectation, assumes the semblance of the prophetic. In fact, 
as has been truly observed, the crisis is strange, and the charac- 
teristic phenomena so remarkable, that " the same individual, 
when awake and when somnambulist, appears like two entirely 
different persons." It is not, therefore, at all to be wondered at, 
that a young and ignorant girl, when thrown by disetse into this 
devotional ecstasis, — at one moment looking up with heavenly 
smiles and clamping he:* hands together as if praying, — at another 
uttering the most strange and mysterious opinions with a degree 
of knowledge, and freedom, and decision, of which she is perfect- 
ly incapable when awake, should be regarded by the uneducated, 
as a supernatural being. And when certain phenomena, such as 
an absence of pain, lengthened sleep, vision of persons or things 
with the eyes closed, should be superadded to these other appear- 
ances, it is perhaps to be expected that some such an opinion 
should possess the minds even of the better informed. Deceived 
themselves by the incomprehensible character of the sleeper's 
condition, they end in deceiving others. And thus a diseased 
habit of body, which a larger acquaintance with physiology can 
now readily explain, became accredited as a miracle, or denounc- 
ed as Satanic, according to the accidental creed of the parties in- 
terested in the interpretation.* 

Without going back, therefore, to the olden days of Greece or 
Rome, we may procure many an example out of the annals of the 
Church. Take Hume's " History of the Holy Maid of Kent," in 
the reign of Henry the Eighth, " Elizabeth Barton had been sub- 
ject to hysterical fits, which threw her body into unusual convul- 
sions ; and having procured an equal disorder in her mind, made 
her utter strange sayings, which, as she was scarcely conscious of 
them during the time, had soon after entirely escaped her memory. 
The silly people in the neighborhood were struck with these 
appearances, which they imagined to be supernatural.'' 1 The 
vicar of the parish began to " watch her in her trances, and note 



* The sceptic takes a different line. Hame, in his famous essay, rejects all 
such statements as " impossible." Speaking of the cures performed at the 
tomb of the Abbe Paris, he says: " What have we to oppose to such a cloud 
of witnesses but the absolute impossibility or miraculous nature of the 
events which they relate ? and this, surely, in the eyes of all reasonable peo- 
ple, will alone be regarded as a sufficient refutation. " The modern physiolo- 
gist knows, however, the possibility of far more wondrous facts. 



116 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

down her sayings." Knavery soon followed the first delusion. 
The maid was taught to assume a more extraordinary language, 
and to counterfeit stranger trances under the dictation of her spir- 
itual director. " Miracles were daily added to increase the won- 
der : and the pulpit everywhere resounded with accounts of the 
sanctity and inspiration of the new prophetess." She was after- 
wards apprehended, the forgery of her miracles was detected, 
and the public was undeceived. 

Now it is clear from the attendant circumstances that this was 
a case of natural Mesmerism. The poor girl had been subject to 
hysterical fits, the effect of disease. In these fits she fell into a 
deep trance or sleep : in this sleep the usual exaltation of the 
mind came on ; — she " uttered strange sayings," of which strange 
sayings, when she awoke, she was quite unconscious. This 
common occurrence in the Mesmeric state the world deemed 
" supernatural ;" and a designing priesthood " persuaded the peo- 
ple and the maid herself that her ravings were inspirations of the 
Holy Ghost." 

A learned writer in the " Church of England Quarterly Re- 
view," for April, 1843, in an article on this subject, has collected 
the names of several ecstatic nuns and females of the church of 
Rome. The reviewer mentions some cases in which the impos- 
ture was clear, and admitted afterwards by the parties : and hence 
he infers that all the other instances were " sheer imposture," in 
like manner. Imposition, however, will not explain all the facts. 
It explains much that was added on in the progress of the work, 
after the priests had found the trances profitable ; but that the ori- 
ginal state of many a " prophetess," which led to the delusion, 
was a natural and diseased action none can doubt, who have 
oiven to the subject of Mesmerism a philosophical study. 

Our next instance shall be drawn from the pages of Protestant 
History. When Louis the Fourteenth revoked the Edict of 
Nantes, and withdrew the protection of the state from the reform- 
ed Church, the most extraordinary excitement was stirred up in the 
South of France, in the mountainous district called the Cevennes. 
The whole population went mad with religious zeal. They 
preached, they prophesied, they quaked ; in short, the most mar- 
vellous state of things came on, so that to the eye of the ardent 
Protestant a divine revelation and assistance appeared vouchsafed 
to the cause. 

" In the midst of the general excitement, one especial case of 
miraculous illumination was singled out. Isabeau Vincent, a 
young girl, aged seventeen, was constantly falling into a state of 
deep sleep, from which it was at times impossible to arouse her. 
They called to her with a loud voice, they pushed her, they pinch- 
ed her, they pricked her till they drew blood, they burned her, but 
nothing awoke her. She was soon regarded by her Protestant 
neighbors as a prophetess. For in her sleep she sang Psalms, 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 117 

and chanted long hymns, and made admirable prayers, and 
recited texts of Scripture, which she expounded, and from 
which she formed her prophetic declarations. When she 
awoke she remembered nothing of what she had said or pro- 
phesied daring the ecstasies. And one other remarkable point 
in her condition was, that she rarely awoke of herself, but re- 
quired assistance, and told those about her to awaken her.* 

We have another remarkable prophetess in the reformed 
Church, Christian Poniatova, of Bohemia. Her convulsions, 
trances, and visions, took place in 1627, at a time that a sharp 
persecution was set on foot against the Protestant part of the Bo- 
hemian community. Her visions had reference to the prosperity 
and fortunes of the reformed Church. Her sleep was most pro- 
found ; during which she fell into ecstasies. She then predicted 
several events ; and she seems to have had in that state a certain 
species of prevision, such as Mesmerised patients occasionally 
possess. Her Protestant partizans regarded the whole as a mira- 
cle, and the girl as divinely inspired. But here is the noticeable 
point: when she recovered her health, the supernatvral disap- 
peared. The malady and the miracle went away together. She 
afterwards married, and was no longer regarded as a prophetess. f 

Mr. Colquhoun, in the " Isis Revelata," gives us another case 
that occurred in Brazil, where a girl, named Sister Germaine, in 
1808, was attacked by an hysterical affection, accompanied by 
serious ill health : " She was in such a state, that she was no 
longer able to rise from her bed, and subsisted upon a regimen 
which could scarcely have supported the life of a new-born in- 
fant." And now comes the miraculous part. The poor invalid 
fell into a deep trance : her arms grew stiff, and were extended in 
the form of a cross, and in this position remained for hours. 
Other circumstances, usual in this sort of ecstasies, took place ; 
the whole was declared to be a miracle. Sister Germaine was 
regarded as a saint ; and the concourse of pilgrims to visit her 
was immense. And now let us notice the close connection be- 
tween natural and mesmeric somnambulism. The priest stated, 
that " in the midst of the most fearful convulsions, it was always 
sufficient for him to touch the patient to restore her to perfect tran- 
quillity. During her periodical ecstasies, when her limbs were 
so stiff that it would have been easier to break than bend them, her 
confessor, according to his own account, had only to touch her 
arm, in order to give it whatever position he thought proper." 
Every Mesmeriser who has had a patient in a rigid or cataleptic 
state can understand and believe the above narrative. 



* " Ces extases ne paraissaient que comme un pro-fond sommeil, duquel il 
etait impossible de la tirer On l'appelait a haute voix, on la poussait, on la 
p^ait, on la piquait jusqn'au sansr, on la brulait ; rien ne la revcillait." — Ber- 
trand, T. du Somnambulume, p. 368. 

f Bertrand, Traite du Somnambulisme. 



118 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

We will now come to later days — to certain modern miracles 
among the Wesleyans and Roman Catholics, which have excited 
considerable interest and sensation in their respective churches. 

Among the Wesleyans there have been recently two or three 
wonders, some of which are too ridiculous to be noticed ; but 
there is one which, from the notoriety and credit it has obtained, 
trie manner with which public attention has been invited towards 
k, and the effect it has produced upon the religious feelings of 
their own body, is more especially deserving of examination. 

" The History of an Entranced Female" is a narrative drawn 
up and attested by the Rev. R. Young, Wesleyan minister. This 
little work was sold by the accredited organ of the Wesleyan 
Book Committee and of the Conference, with their connivance, 
if not their permission ; and so far the story received their indi- 
rect sanction. The circulation was immense. It reached a 
twenty-seventh edition ; and the revelations of the prophetess 
were considered so important that the faith of whole Wesleyan 
congregations was in a state of warm excitement respecting 
them. 

It was simply a case of hysteria, or natural Mesmerism, as a 
few words extracted from the narrative will show. The som- 
nambulist "had been very ill, and was supposed to be dying. 1 '' 
Here is the first point to be remembered. At last she fell into a 
trance. " In this state," Mr. Young says, " she appeared to die. 
But after lying, with no signs of life, save a little froth from the 
mouth and a slight warmth about the region of the heart, for nearly 
a week, she opened her eyes. And now began her remarkable 
disclosures" It is unnecessary to examine these disclosures. 
There is no reason to suppose either trick or imagination in the 
transaction. It is a case of pure ignorance on the part of the 
writer and of his Wesleyan supporters. Like the Holy Maid of 
Kent, and several Mesmerised patients, the " Entranced Female" 
was simply in a state of exaltation, moral and intellectual, and 
had clearer and more active perceptions than in her ordinary con- 
dition.* 

We will now examine the no less memorable occurrences in 
the Roman Catholic community : these have produced an equal 
excitement, and have equally been referred to as proofs of the 
supernatural. It has long ago been observed, that in enthusiastic 
belief of the marvellous, the Wesleyans and Romanists are sister 
churches, f 

We must first return to Mr. M'Neile, and give his views on the 



* See a clever useful little book in refutation ef several of these absurdities, 
called " Modern Miracles condemned by Reason and Scripture," by Phiiio- 
Veritas. (Painter, 342, Strand.) Still the writer has not gone to the bottom 
of the subject, or understood the real cause of the phenomena. 

f See Bishop Lavington's well-known and most useful work- 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 119 

question ; for strange to say, he has in some manner alighted on 
a certain portion of the truth, and seen the real connection be- 
tween the artificial and the natural ecstasy. " This pretended 
science,'* says the sermon, " is precisely the thing that my Lord 
Shrewsbury has put forth, to prove that popery is the true version 
of Christianity. What is his Ecstatica which he has written 
such a book about ? You have heard of the Ecstatica and Addo- 
lorata, — the two young women whom he saw on the Continent : 
they were Mesmerised, His description of them exactly corres- 
ponds with the description we have of these Mesmerised persons. 
He tells us of a young woman, who was in a state of ecstasy, 
wrapt in prayer, devoted to the Virgin ; — her eyes were open, but 
she had no natural sensibility of what was going on without. He 
says that " a fly was seen to walk across her eyeball, and she never 
winked ; she was totally insensible of everything that was going 
on, except one thing : he says, that she manifested consciousness 
at the approach of the consecrated host." " Now here is a state, 
pleaded by a popish writer as a proof of divine influence, as a 
proof of divine origin of his creed." " Now this belongs to the 
mystery of iniquity." — And so far the sermon. Now what Mr. 
M'Neile considered as Satanic, and my Lord Shrewsbury as 
divine in the above transactions, I must beg leave to reduce to an 
humbler character ; and stripping the facts altogether of the mar- 
vellous, show to be merely an action of rfature in a state of 
disease. 

In that most delightful province of southern Germany, where 
the simple character of the inhabitants, and the ever-varying 
charms of mountain, valley, and torrent, would tempt the idle 
traveller to linger for weeks, two young girls have lately been the 
subject of much observation from the peculiar character and con- 
dition of their health. Those who have traversed that picturesque 
route in the Tyrol, which leads from Brixen to Trent, want not 
to be reminded, how every nook and turn of the road swarms with 
the emblems of Roman Catholic worship. Superstition puts on 
its most persuasive form. Images of the Virgin, of the Saviour, 
— of the crucifixion with all its attendant accidents, stations for 
devotion, and hermitages, meet the eye of the passenger in unin- 
terrupted succession. In no part of the Continent have I ever 
remarked so many of the externals of devotion as in the smiling^ 
vales of the Tyrol ; and the primitive habits of its mountain pea- 
santry have been strongly moulded under their influence. As 
Southey says in his Colloquies, " Religion may be neglected, but 
cannot be forgotten in Roman Catholic countries ;" and the reader 
is requested to bear this observation in mind, as throwing light on 
certain phenomena, of which strong religious feelings were the 
source. 

These two young girls, the Ecstatica of Caldaro and the Ad- 
dolorata of Capriana (as they are now termed), had both been 



120 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

subject to much ill health. The former " had had various attacks 
of illness during her early years." The Addolorata " had been 
attacked with violent and complicated illness about the age of seven- 
teen." Both at last fell into a trance. Both became " Ecstatic." 
And in that state such singular phenomena exhibited themselves, 
the effect of an excited mind upon a diseased habit of body, that 
the appearances were pronounced by the surrounding country to 
be miraculous. The priesthood at once took the case under their 
protection ; but there is no reason to believe that any imposture 
or trickery was superadded by them. They were as honest as 
they were ignorant. All they did was to magnify the importance 
of the facts, and to give the largest currency to the intelligence. 
Multitudes flocked from all quarters as on a pilgrimage. Amongst 
them came my Lord Shrewsbury and suite ; and several Protest- 
ant gentlemen, who were all staggered by what they saw. 

Lord Shrewsbury, believing the facts to be supernatural, pub- 
lished that account to which Mr. M'Neile referred ; and from his 
little pamphlet, we will select the more prominent points. " We 
found her," says the Noble Lord, speaking of the Ecstatica, " in 
her usual state of ecstasy, — kneeling upon her bed motionless as 

a statue There was much of grace in her attitude." 

" Our first feeling was that of awe at finding ourselves in her 
presence." She appeared " motionless." " When in this state, 
she neilher sees nor> hears : all her senses are absorbed in the ob- 
ject of her contemplation ; she is entranced ; but it is neither the 
trance of death, nor the suspension of life, but a sort of superna- 
tural existence, — dead indeed to this world, — but most feelingly 
alive to the other." " She had not the least perception of our pre- 
sence." " Her confessor, by a slight touch or word, caused her to 
fall back upon her pillow." " Her confessor proposed that he 
should awaken her entirely from her trance." " In an instant the 
most perfect animation was restored to her." " The circum- 
stance which struck us, was the extreme facility with which her 
confessor transformed her from a state of perfect unconsciousness 
as to sensible objects to one of ordinary life." — " She has been 
known to remain for hours in this state," — " yet a gentle touch from 
her confessor, or any ecclesiastic with whom she is acquainted, is 
sufficient to dissolve the charm at once." 

" A M. de la Bouillerie visited her on his way to Rome, and 
found her kneeling in a state of ecstasy, when he saw a fly walk 
quietly across the pupil of her eye, when wide open, without pro- 
ducing the slightest emotion." 

The Addolorata was much the same. " She frequently lay en- 
tranced for a considerable time." " It was under these circum- 
stances that during one night her whole head was encircled by 
small wounds." " Fourteen days after the crown of thorns, she 
received the stigmata in the hands and feet." " As a piece of 
deception," — says Lord Shrewsbury, " it is both morally and phy- 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 121 

sically impossible." These are the main points in these Roman 
Catholic miracles, with the addition of what has already been 
mentioned, " the consciousness of the approach of the consecrated 
host." 

" Now," says Lord Shrewsbury in conclusion, " the infidel may 
scoff at all this, but the designs of God are accomplished." There 
is, however, no inclination to scoff at the sincere opinions of any 
man when it is said in reply, that these supposed miraculous ap- 
pearances are the same in character, as what the Wesleyan and 
the Protestant maidens of the Cevennes and of Bohemia ex- 
hibited in their persons, due allowance being made for the dif- 
ferences of religion, and the various habits of mind and body ; nay, 
they are much the same as what numerous spectators have wit- 
nessed in the house of Mr. Atkinson, and what I have seen oc- 
curring under my own roof. 

These ecstatic cases, whether of artificial or natural somnam- 
bulism, would seem to be divided into two classes. Those in 
which a devotional attitude or a cataleptic state are developed, but 
where little or nothing of a predictive or conversational power ap- 
peared ; and those, in which revelations and disclosures were the 
distinguishing characteristics. 

The two girls in the Tyrol, Sister Germaine of Brazil, Anne 
Vials of St. Alban's, and Dr. Elliotson's patient, of whom he 
speaks in the " Zo'ist," fall under the first class.- The Holy Maid 
of Kent, the French and Bohemian Protestant dreamers, the en- 
tranced female among the Wesleyans, and a young Mesmeric 
prophetess, of whom I shall speak presently, belong to the second 
division. Of course, there are intermediate shades of distinction 
and of connection ; but there would appear to be some sort of men- 
tal or physical difference. 

I have not a shadow of doubt, that if Mr. Atkinson had wished. 
to found a religious sect, and secluding Anne Vials from the 
world, had habituated her for years to conversation, and objects, 
and persons, and books of an exclusively religious character, and 
never permitted mundane transactions to be brought to her notice, 
either in her waking or sleeping state, the most extraordinary 
effects might have been produced, and the most monstrous doc- 
trines have been built up at his suggestion. He might have re- 
treated with his ecstatic dreamer to some romantic vale, — startled 
the superstitious neighborhood by her attitudes, her devotions, 
and her miraculous sufferings ; and crowds would have flocked to 
witness the spectacle, and imbibe its creed ; and gaping tourists 
might have perplexed their readers with lucubrations on the 
phenomena. But Mr. Atkinson is a philosopher and a lover of truth : 
his habit is to illustrate, — to compare, — to explain ; — with Bacon 
he delights in the " Interpretation of Nature," believing that " God 
hath fitted much for the comprehension of man's mind, if man will 
open and dilate the powers of his understanding as he may." He 



122 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

Itnew , for instance, that Lord Shrewsbury's description of his 
Tyrolese maidens might answer word for word, to much that has 
occurred with poor Anne. The fact of a fly walking over the pu- 
pil of her eye, when wide open, which seemed such a proof of 
the miraculous to M. de la Bouillerie, has happened with her two 
or three times. The fly even once stopped and cleaned its wings 
on the eyeball. I once saw the end of a pocket-handkerchief 
placed gently on the pupil, and the lid neither winked nor moved 
at the touch. She was perfectly unconscious of the act. 

In regard to the appearance of the stigmata and the small 
wounds on the head of the Addolorata, Dr. Elliotson and Mr. At- 
kinson both are of opinion, that they might be the effect of strong 
imagination and habitual contemplation upon a highly diseased 
frame : if that view be trop fort for some readers, I can say on 
the other hand, in spite of Lord Shrewsbury^ assertion, that as 
*' a piece of deception it is physically impossible," that I would 
have engaged repeatedly to have made the very same marks upon 
the head and hands of Anne Vials without any consciousness on 
her part : all Mesmerisers will confirm this declaration : at the 
same time, I see no reason to charge the Tyrolese priests with 
any artifice of the kind ; the involuntary effect of imagination after 
a preconceived idea is so strong with some sickly sleep-waking 
females, that through the bare impression of the mind, nature 
might throw out the external phenomenon. 

In the Foreign Quarterly Review, LXIII., is an example taken 
from Lavergne's " De FAgonie et de la Mort, sous le Rapport 
Physiologique, &c," which strongly illustrates the probability of this 
opinion, and shows the effect of habitual thought upon the state of 
the body : " At this moment there exists in a village of the 
department of the Var, of which Brignoles is the chief town, a 
woman possessed by divine love. Since her earliest infancy this 
woman professes the most ardent love for the Saviour ; the passion 
has always been her fixed idea, the object of her aspirations and 
thoughts. She meditates and prays ; and in her moments of 
ecstasy may have confided some of her visions to her friends. 
When her prayer is at its height" (in other words, when the 
ecstatic state is most fully developed), " a crown is seen to sur- 
round her forehead and the rest of her head, which looks as if it 
were opened by a regular tattooing, from each point in which a 
pure blood issues : the palms of her hands and the soles of her feet 
open spontaneously at the places where the nails of the punish- 
ment were inserted, her side offers the bleeding mark of a lance- 
thrust, and finally, a true cross of blood appears on her chest. 
Cotton cloths applied to these places, absorb the red mark. This 
fact can be vouched for by hundreds in the country." 

It may be desirable to add, — that Lord Shrewsbury, speaking 
of the Ecstatica, says that Gorres, in his narrative of the case, 
relates that " so early as the autumn of 1 833, her confessor ob- 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 123 

served, accidentally, that a part of the hands, where the wounds 
afterwards appeared began to sink in, as if under the pressure of 
some external body, and also that they became painful and 
frequently attacked by cramps. He conjectured from these ap- 
pearances, that the stigmata " (i. e., the five wounds, like those of 
the Saviour, in the crucifixion) — " would eventually appear, and 
the result fulfilled his expectation. On the Purification, on the 2d 
of February, 1834, he found her holding a cloth, with which, 
from time to time, she wiped her hands, frightened like a child at 
what she saw there. Perceiving blood upon the cloth, he asked 
her what it meant ? These were the stigmata, which thencefor- 
ward continued upon her hands, and shortly afterwards made their 
appearance upon her feet, and to these, at the same time, was 
added the wound upon the heart." 

Now, when the Earl of Shrewsbury, with piety which com- 
mands our respect, says that he considers these stigmata, &c, 
"the most extraordinary objects in the w T orld," — it is necessary to 
remind him, that Gorres mentions that " it is asserted by the 
directors of her conscience and by her curate, that in her ecstasies 
during the last four years she had been employed in contemplating 
the life and passion of Christ. The most frequent object of her 
contemplations is the Passion of the Redeemer : — this produces 
the profoundest impression upon her, and is most vividly expressed 
upon her exterior. Particularly during the holy week, her whole 
being seems penetrated, and the images in her soul act forcibly 
upon her frame." 

Now, when we find that this poor girl had from her childhood 
evinced an ardent love of God and a pleasure in prayer, — that her 
visits to the Franciscan church had been unremitting, that her 
bodily sufferings began even in her ffth year, that she was even on 
the brink of the grave, that no remedies ameliorated her health, 
that the root of the disorder remained undiscovered, and that 
therefore she became in consequence still more pious, meditative, 
and constant in prayer, — the physiologist obtains a clue to the 
wonder. " In her eighteenth year she again fell seriously ill, and 
when, after a whole year's suffering, she inquired of the doctor if 
it were quite impossible for her to recover her heilth, and he an- 
swered — that he could only alleviate her pains, she replied that 
she would do for the future without medical advice," — and would 
receive with submission what God would lay upon her. Here, 
then, we see a physical preparation for what the ecstasies, or 
somnambulistic condition, brought out. She lived for four 
years during her ecstatic state in the contemplation of the Passion 
of the Saviour ; — for more than four months before the appearance 
of the wounds, that part of the hands began to sink in, and became 
painful, — and the stigmata on the feet and heart did not appear so 
very extraordinary : to use Gorres's own expression — " the images 
in her soul were acting forcibly upon her whole frame." 



1 



124 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

The history of the Addolorata shows the same preparation of 
mind and body for the same effect. " Domenica gave early indi- 
cations of extraordinary piety. She was frequently found praying 
in the most secluded parts of the house. She received her first 
communion with singular devotion, — and had expressed an ardent 
desire to do so at an earlier period." " At the age of seventeen 
she was attacked with violent and complicated illness ;" — " her 
sufferings were so great that her screams were often heard at a 
great distance ;" " the holy communion alone relieved her, — after 
which she frequently lay entranced for a considerable time." 

When the pamphlet mentions too, — that " under the very shadow 
of the large crucifix, which is suspended over the head of Maria 
Mori (the Ecstatica), the spirit of ecstasy is infused into her," and 
that " Domenica Lazari (the Addolorata) lies stretched upon her 
pallet in face of the representation of the death of the Saviour," 
though Lord Shrewsbury describes them as " two great and as- 
tounding miracles," — we see an additional assistance to the action 
of the mind upon the body, — and uniting with Mesmerism to ex- 
plain the matter. 

Lord Shrewsbury mentions in a note the case of another Ecs- 
tatica, in whom the wounds appeared, — who had been " very ill" 
and " contemplating the sufferings of the Saviour, — and, moved 
by sympathy, had demanded to suffer with him." From all which 
occurrences, it would appear that this peculiar state is, after all, 
not so very extraordinary ! for fifty other persons, similarly affect- 
ed, are supposed to have existed in the Roman Catholic Church. 

As to the consciousness of the Ecstatica, during her trance, of 
the approach of the consecrated host, though Mr. M'Neile thinks 
it an additional proof of the " mystery of iniquity," it is simply an 
instance of clairvoyance, which, though rejected at present as 
impossible by so many unbelievers, is so exceedingly common an 
occurrence, that shortly it will occasion no wonder whatsoever. 

Of the second class of Ecstatic sleepwakers, who astonish their 
fellow-worshippers by the marvels they reveal, there is at this 
moment, in one of our midland counties, a Mesmeric prophetess, 
who is equally the cause of excitement and discussion. 

A young girl, the daughter of Socialist parents, and brought up 
by them in ignorance and unbelief of Scripture, had been Mes- 
merised on account of her health. She had been Mesmerised by 
four different individuals, two of whom are friends of my own, 
without any remarkable effects of a mental character resulting. 
At last, she is Mesmerised by a gentleman of strong religious feel- 
ings, whose knowledge of Scripture is most profound and accu- 
rate, and whose theological tenets are somewhat peculiar. Reli- 
gion is, in fact, the uppermost occupation of his mind ; and mark 
the effect at once on the Socialist patient. She straightway be- 
comes in her sleep most conversant with the Bible ; — she com- 
pares one text to another ; — she interprets the Old Testament by 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 125 

the New ; — she discovers the deepest meaning in most abstruse 
chapters ; she is an expositor of what she declares are the real 
doctrines of the Gospel. That a Socialist girl should accomplish 
all this, is regarded as supernatural ;— she is considered as in- 
spired, — called a prophetess ;— and at present no one can say 
what turn the delusion may take. Now any one who has studied 
the science, may see, at a glance, that this is purely a case of 
Mesmeric sympathy ; the patient is reading the mind of the Mes* 
meriser, and nothing else. There is no origination of idea, but a 
transference of thought to one whose intellectual powers are spirit- 
ualised by Mesmerism. That this explanation is correct, we 
have curious corroborative testimony. The girl is placed en rap* 
port, that is, in Mesmeric communication, with a gentleman whose 
studies are altogether of an astrological character ; and her talk is 
straightway of the " stars."— She is placed en rapport with a lady, 
who declares that her innermost thoughts are laid bare by the pa- 
tient ; and both these parties know not what to think. Great 
hubbub is raised ; — the neighborhood is all stirred up ; those who 
have a tendency towards religious novelties, look for fresh revela- 
tions from the magical maid ; those who adhere to the Evangelical 
section of the Church, raise a bigoted cry of Satanic agency ; 
while simple nature is forgotten, and both sides overlook the fact 
that the patient is sympathetically united with the mind of the 
Mesmerist.* 

What opposite views, then, have these somnambulist revela- 
tions been required to support ! In Kent, in the sixteenth cen- 
tury, they are brought in aid of the Church of Rome. In the 
seventeenth century, they have to do service for the Reformed 
Churches of France and Bohemia. And now in the present day, 
they are called up to strengthen the cause of good old John Wes- 
ley ; while, if the preacher be the Protestant Pope of a fashiona- 
ble watering-place, he deems an opposite line more expedient, 
and so adorns his rhetoric with plumage borrowed from St. Jude's 
at Liverpool. 

A propos of a fashionable congregation. A description has 
already been given of the effect of a Mesmeric wonder upon 
a superstitious peasantry and an ill-educated priesthood ; it is 
regarded by both as a miracle. Let us now imagine how the 
very same marvels would ferment in the mind of a popular 
preacher nearer home ; and see if a sketch cannot be suggested, 
the likeness of which might be recognized in many a place 
by those who reside close to the spot. 

Suppose a preacher, — it matters not whether of the tractarian 



* Of course, this supposed prophetess not only reads the mind of the Mes- 
meriser, but is farther gifted with that enlargement of the spiritual faculties, 
which is so usual in the Mesmeric state, and which gives the additional mar- 
vel to the whole transaction. It is this exaltation of soul that stamps her 
"revelations" with the semblance of the miraculous. 



J 



126 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 

or opposite school, — but one who loves spiritual power so well 
that he can bear no brother near his throne. Suppose him to be 
a well-informed man, and entertaining decided opinions in favor 
of Mesmerism. Suppose him to have admitted this to a friend, 
and even to have stated to another person, that animal magnetism 
was a profound science, fraught with good to man, by no means 
necessarily connected with materialism, though man might per* 
vert the best things to his ruin. Suppose him to have uttered 
something like this, — when in the midst of his convictions a few 
Mesmeric phenomena occur in the vicinity, and ruffle the smooth- 
ness of " life's dreary intercourse ;" they, in fact, attract conside- 
rable notice. But a fashionable spa is not ripe for such a novelty. 
Our preacher's congregation find it far easier to combine the 
pomps and vanities of this world with sabbatical excitement, than 
to see religion and science linked together in that happy union, 

i( qualem decet esse sororum." 

Does our imaginary teacher, then, rebuke their ignorance ? does 
he set an example of manly independence ? Alas ! his pre-emi- 
nence is at stake. That most intolerable of tyrannies, — a tyranny 
in things spiritual, must not be hazarded for a moment. He 
mounts his pulpit ; he classes Mesmerism with astrology and 
witchcraft ; he condemns its practice as a presumptuous prying 
into the secret hidden things of the Creator. As Bacon says, he 
" presumes to check the liberality of God's gifts ;" — and he classes 
its healing benefits as one of the lying wonders of the latter days. 
And having thus seasoned his discourse with what Dr. Hooke 
calls " grandiloquent ignorance," he walks forth amidst his friends, 
triumphant and all-powerful, and receiving their congratulations at 
the proud position he retains. 

Compare such a proceeding with the honest but mistaken 
views of a priest in the Tyrol. Yet the Roman Catholic is 
termed an impostor, and a fabricator of miracles ; the other is up* 
held and admired as a supporter of truth ! 

To return, however, to the question of mental and Mesmeric 
sympathy, there can be little doubt that the modern miracles in 
Egypt, which Lord Prudhoe witnessed, and which have so per- 
plexed the learned of this country to explain, have some con- 
nection with this " transfer of thought," of which we have been 
speaking. Dr. Collyer has written an able work on this subject ; 
he supposes that a vital electricity is the medium of communica- 
tion from mind to mind; that there is an " embodiment of thought;" 
in other words, an impression of the thoughts of one mind, through 
a Mesmeric agent, on the brain or mind of another. By this very 
embodiment of thought the young prophetess reads the mind of 
her Mesmeriser, and transfers his Scriptural acquirements into 
her own brain ; and by the same embodiment the Arabian boy 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 327 

became acquainted with the likenesses of Nelson, of Shakspeare ? 
and of the brother of Major Felix, and so perplexed the noble 
traveller and his numerous critics.* 

In short, we are but in the infancy of our Mesmeric knowledge. 
Not only may the oracles of old, those for instance of Delphi, be 
explained by the responses of a magnetic somnambulist in the 
highest state of lucidity — not only may many startling wonder- 
ments in the Church of Rome be likened to some in the Wesleyan 
community, and be farther illustrated by the ecstatic condition of 
a Mesmerised patient ; but it may even be suggested to the philo- 
sophic inquirer to pursue the topic into a wider field. It may be 
possible that the sympathy of Mesmeric action may throw a light 
on the hysteric excitement, by which large multitudes of men are 
stirred up into a strange contagious enthusiasm. Dr. Bertrand, in 
his well-known work, contends strongly for this opinion. The 
prophets of the Cevennes, — the nuns of London, the convulsion- 
aires of St. Medard, are cited by him as instances of proof. We 
might add to this list the strange sect of the Flagellants of Hun- 
gary and Bohemia, in the fifteenth century. L'Enfant, in the 
" History of the Council of Constance/' gives a curious account 
of this heresy ; and states that this love of self-flagellation became 
a perfect " furor r " and so contagious was it, that some contempo- 
raries deemed it as " supernatural, and the inspiration of Hea- 
ven ;" — others " regarded it as the suggestion of an evil spirit."! 
The enthusiasm of the quakers at their first establishment,. — of the 
meihodists in their early days, — and in our own time the wildness 
and madness of the " unknown tongues," may all fall under the 
same class. A panic on board a ship r excitement in the field of 
battle, applause in a crowded theatre, make some approach to 
the same character. And when in these and similar cases we 
add the principle of imitation to the contagious influence of Mes- 
meric power, — we catch a clue that unravels much that is myste- 
rious in the conduct of man ; we see how intimately we are all 
united, physically as well as morally ; sympathy and the force of 
attraction are called into being where it is little suspected, 

*' Striking the electric chain wherewith we are darkly bound" 

one with another ! 



• See " Psychography, or the Embodiment of Thought/' by Dr. Collyer".— 
See also "The People's Phrenological Journal," No. XLIV. 

f This is so exaetly a counterpart of what occurs at every other Strang* 
appearance, that the words should be quoted : — 

" Elle avait un air sumaturel qui faisait juger aux uns que e' etait une in* 
6piration du ciel, pendant que les autres la regardoient comme une suggestion 
du mauvais Esprit." — HUioire du Concile de Constance, liv. v. 



i'2'8 MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS, 

The task to which I have so anxiously devoted myself, is now 
completed ; and my readers must judge with what success. 

I have endeavored to show that there is in Mesmerism the ex* 
istence of a power which, if properly directed and controlled, may 
be found eminently serviceable in increasing the happiness of hu* 
man kind. 

I have endeavored to prove this position by numerous instances 
confirmed by observation and experiment. 

I have respectfully invited the attention of the medical world to 
a philosophic consideration of the uses of this power. 

I have shown that the vague charge of Satanic action is one 
which has been renewed at every fresh and mysterious discovery; 
that it is a charge, too, which often proceeds less from the gross* 
est ignorance than the interested motives of the inventor. 

I have endeavored to prove that our knowledge of Mesmerism 
does, in no degree, affect our belief in real miracles, and in the 
doctrines of Scripture, though it may throw light upon many of 
those secrets respecting the relationship of mind and matter, which 
have hitherto appeared miraculous or perplexing, according as the 
priest or philosopher have respectively regarded them. 

And now nothing remains but to congratulate the friends of 
truth, at the marked and steady progress that the great cause is 
making. The adversaries may be numerous and influential, but 
their number is diminishing daily. The established leaders of 
the medical profession, who have fixed the principles of their 
practice, and desire no disturbance in their views from the detec- 
tion of a fresh and unknown law in nature ; the accredited leaders 
of the Evangelical clergy, whose unfortunate love of popularity 
and power tempts them to uphold their otherwise well-deserved 
eminence by fanatical denunciations of the first object that per- 
plexes them ; every weak and nervous woman, who deems it one 
of the privileges of the sex to surrender her reasoning faculties 
into the guidance of some favorite and spiritual adviser ; and last- 
ly, the large portion of the public that hates to think for itself ; 
that loathes everything which is new ; that calls reformation revo- 
lution, and prefers a vapid uniformity of existence, to the animat- 
ing pleasures of knowledge and discovery ; these are the oppo- 
nents of Mesmerism ; and with these any controversy is worse 
than useless. How cheering is the opposite side of the picture ! 
The friends of the art are those of whom any cause might be 
proud. Men of science, men of philosophy, men, whose benevo- 
lence is as wide and practical as their intellects are clear and 
commanding ; these are our guides and champions in this glorious 
£eld of Christian usefulness, and under their banners a day of 
complete success cannot be far distant. But they are not merely 
a few select and leading minds that rank among its advocates ; 
large bodies of men are taking up the question. It is a fact that 
a numerous portion of the junior members of the medical profession 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 129 

are alive to trie truths of Mesmerism, and only biding their time 
till the ripened mind of the public gives them a signal for its more 
general adoption. It is a fact that very many individuals among 
the younger portion of the clergy, are conscious of the medicinal 
value of the science, and are introducing its practice as one of 
their means of parochial usefulness. Nay, the two extremes of 
the great social pyramid are both exerting their energies in the 
same direction. Mechanics' Institutes are taking the subject up ; 
and many of the operatives in the North and in the manufacturing 
towns have experienced a sense of its domestic benefit. But it 
is among our haute noblesse itself that the strongest division of sup- 
porters may perhaps be found. Some of the leading members of 
the aristocracy are practising the art for the benefit of their poorer 
brethren ; and very many are giving to the subject a patient and 
anxious investigation. It is indeed one of the most favorable 
signs of the times, in spite of the fearful storms that seem to cloud 
the social horizon, this growing disposition on the part of all ranks 
of the community to devote themselves most extensively to the 
useful and to the instructive. There is, perhaps, at this moment no 
single department of science or general literature which cannot 
boast amongst its followers one or two of the most accomplished 
members from out of the circle of the British aristocracy. And 
Mesmerism is no exception to the progressive character of their 
studies. In short, as Mr. Chenevix said a few years back, Mes- 
merism is established. Nothing but a general convulsion of 
society, a loss of the art of printing, and a return to the barbarous 
condition of those of old, can, humanly speaking, roll back that 
current of knowledge on the subject which is growing and ex- 
panding every year. Soon, very soon, will it be an acknowledged, 
an admitted branch of medical practice. And when that day shall 
at length arrive, when the mists of prejudice and bigotry shall be 
dispersed before the glowing splendors of the Sun of truth, and 
men shall look back in wonder at that hardened incredulity which 
checked its onward progress — let it never be forgotten who it was 
that in this country first placed the question on its legitimate foot- 
ing — who it was that first took the practice out of the hands of the 
charlatan, and added its multiplied and profound resources to the 
former stores of the healing art — who it was that, risking the loss 
of friends, the loss of income, the loss of elevated standing in his 
own profession, stepped out manfully and truthfully from the timid 
crowd, and asserted the claims of this great discovery to a place 
Avithin the circle of the medical sciences : and when the question 
is asked who it was that so boldly ventured on this untrodden 
ground, a grateful posterity will respond with the name of John 
Elliotson. But it will also be added, that he lived to see his 
calumniated art acknowledged and pursued ; that he lived to see 
the stream of professional success flowing back to him with the 
full tide of popular support ; that he lived to see every statement 
9 



130 



MESMERISM AND ITS OPPONENTS. 



which he had advanced, every treatment which he had adopted, 
established, and confirmed ; and that as one of the first physicians 
of the age, first in practice, and first in reputation, he was classed 
with the proudest names of that honorable band, 



" Qui sui memores fecere mercEdo." 



1 



APPENDIX. 



An ably written article in the " Critic" for February, 1844, says : — 
" We have no hesitation it asserting as the result of accurate experi- 
ment, that there is a state of human existence, in which the mind per- 
ceives external objects through some other medium than the wonted 
media of the senses, and that in this state the mind perceives things im- 
perceptible in its natural condition." Startling as this position is, there 
is no escaping from the fact. Long before Mesmer appeared, or Mes- 
merism was practised, have such facts been stated on the most unques- 
tionable authority. What is the manner, by which these effects are 
produced, is another and difficult question, for the solution of which, in 
the present state of knowledge, we are little prepared. Whether it be, 
as the writer in the "Critic " suggests, " by a sixth sense, of which in 
our ordinary condition of existence we are not conscious, and which is 
developed only under certain circumstances ; or whether, " by an extra- 
ordinary quickening of the senses, so that they catch sights and sounds 
invisible and inaudible to us ;" whether, " by the partial severance of the 
immaterial mind from its material tenements, and its perception of things 
directly without the intervention of those senses through which only it 
is usually permitted to hold intercourse with the material world ;" or 
whether it be " by a mysterious or unexplained sympathy ;" whatever 
be the hypothesis, the fact is certain, and cannot admit of contradiction. 
The useful point, however, to be borne in mind, is this — that these 
phenomena have occurred without the action of animal magnetism. In 
a useful little work by Mr. Edwin Lee, on Clairvoyance,* — which all 
who are interested on the subject should read, — there is a quotation 
from a German work on practical religion, which is corroborative of the 
opinion. " Nevertheless, it is not to be denied that we are but learners 
in our investigations into the secrets of nature, and that what appears to 
us to be incomprehensible, is not, on that account, to be denied altoge- 
ther. We now know, for instance, that the human soul, which employs 
for its instrument as regards earthly things the nervous system more 
particularly, can also feel and perceive beyond the sphere of the nerves. 
We know that in certain conditions of nervous disorder, man may pos- 
sess increased powers, may perceive distant things, which are separated 
from him by an interval of many miles. We know that in some states 
of the nervous system, persons can see with firmly-closed eyes — can 
hear with closed ears. We have examples of this in somnambulists 
(n itnral sleepwalkers), who, during the complete sleep of their bodies, 
perform things which in their leaking state they were unable to accom- 
plish. Thus, herein shows itself very clearly an activity of the human 
soul altogether independent of outward senses. But, in point of fact, 
it is not the €■>/■ > '■, nor the ears which ear ; it is the soul which 

sees, hears, and perceives In/ means of the nerves, which arc distributed 
over the whole surface of the body, and the powers of which are almost 
redoubled in the apparatus of the senses, smell, feeling," &c. 

* " Report on the Phenomena of Clairvoyance/ by Edw Lee, Esq. 
(Churchill, Prince's Street, Soho.) 



J 



132 APPENDIX. 

A few instances of Clairvoyance, occurring spontaneously in a natural 
state, shall be here adduced in confirmation of the above statement. 
The case of Somnambulism, which is reported on the authority of the 
Archbishop of Bordeaux was alluded to in the Third Chapter. Here 
the young ecclesiastic wrote and read with his eyes closed, and when 
an opaque body was interposed by the archbishop between them and the 
paper. 

Here is a case of hysteria, with extraordinary acuteness of some of 
the senses. It was communicated by Sir G. S. Mackenzie, Bart., to 
the Editor of the Edinburgh Phrenological Journal : — 

" < Dear Sir, 
" The following copy of a letter from a clergyman was sent to me 
nearly six years ago, at a time when Mesmerism had not attracted my 
notice. The case referred to in it was evidently one of natural sleep- 
walking ; and it is to be regretted that so little of it is known, as it ap- 
pears to have been one of great interest. Now that the subject is bet- 
ter and more generally understood, we may hope that such cases, when 
they occur, will not be concealed, 

" Yours faithfully, 

" 24th October, 1843. " G. S. Mackenzie." 

" ' 24th January, 1838. 
" Dear Sir, 
" ' It is perfectly true that our poor friend, who has now been some 
months with us, presents one of those singular and almost incredible 
cases of hysterical or nervous affection which are at distant intervals 
witnessed under the dispensation of the Almighty. 

" ' The overthrow of the regular functions of the nervous system was 
occasioned by the almost sudden death of her father, to whom she was 
most fondly attached, who was seized with illness during her absence 
from him, and died a few hours after she returned to her home. I can- 
not enter into any longer details of the case, which has been attended 
with all those varieties which have long characterized the complaint, 
among medical men, as the Protean disorder. The extraordinary 
powers communicated to the other senses by the temporary suspension 
of one or two of them, are beyond credibility to all those who do not wit- 
ness it ; and I really seldom enter into any of the details, because it 
would be but reasonable that those who have not seen should doubt the 
reality of them. All colors she can distinguish with the greatest cor- 
rectness by night or day, whether presented to her on cloth, silk, mus- 
lin, wax, or even glass ; and this, I may safely say, as easily on any part 
of the body as with the hands, although, of course, the ordinary routine 
of such an exhibition of power takes place with the hands, the other 
being that of mere curiosity. Her delicacy of mind and high tone of 
religious feeling are such, that she has the greatest objection to make 
that which she regards in the light of a heavy affliction from God, a 
matter of show or curiosity to others, although to ourselves, of course, 
all these unusual extravagances of nervous sensibility are manifested 
for at least twelve out of every twenty-four hours. She can not 
only read with the greatest rapidity any writing or print that is legible 
to us, music, &c, with the mere passage of her fingers over it, whether 
in a dark or light room (for her sight is for the most part suspended 
when under the influence of the attack or paroxysm, although she is 



APPENDIX. 133 

perfectly sensible, nay, more acute and clever than in her natural state); 
but, within this month past, she has been able to collect the contents of 
any printing or MS. by merely laying her hand on the page, without 
tracing the lines or letters ; and I saw her, last night only, declare the 
contents of a note just brought into the room, in this way (when I could 
not decipher it myself without a candle), and with a rapidity with which 
I could not have read it by daylight. I have seen her develope hand- 
writing by the application of a note to the back of her hand, neck, or 
foot ; and she can do it at any time. There is nothing wnnatural in this ; 
for, of course, the nervous susceptibility extends all over the surface of 
the body, but use and habit cause us to limit its power more to the fin- 
gers. Many, even medical, men take upon themselves to declare that 
we are all (her medical attendants as well) under a mere delusion. We 
ask none to believe anything, if they prefer not to do so, and only reply 
— The case is equally marvellous either way ; either that this our poor 
patient should be thus afflicted, or that eighteen or nineteen persons of 
my family and friends, in the daily habit of seeing her, should fancy she 
is, for every twelve hours out of twenty-four, doing, at intervals, that 
which she is not doing. There are many exhibitions of extravagant 
powers which she possesses, that we talk of to no one ; for, finding it 
difficult to acquire credit for lesser things, we do not venture on the 
greater. Her power ceases the moment the attack passes off. A con- 
siderable swelling has, at times, been visible at the back of the head, 
which has yielded to the treatment. 

" ' It is certainly a case which would be an instructive one in the con- 
sideration of the physiology of the human frame ; but she, poor thing ! 
is most averse to experiments being purposely made on her : but in her 
every day life among us, we have no lack of proof for all we believe and 
know. 

" ' Between the attacks she is as perfectly in a natural state as ever 
she was in her life. There is but one paradox in her state, and that is, 
that she can at such times hear some sounds and not others, though very 
much louder, and see some things and not others, though placed before 
her. She could hear a tune whistled, when she would not hear a gun 
fired close to her. It is certainly the absorption or absence of mind that 
occasions this : absent to some things, though present to others, like any 
absent man ; and thus Dr. Y accounts for it. 

" ' In making this communication to you, in part to vindicate the tes- 
timony of my friend Mr. M , I have really exceeded my usual cus- 
tom and resolution ; for I do not think it fair to the poor sufferer herself 
to make her too much the talk of others. Very few believe what we 
tell them, and, therefore, we are in no degree anxious to open our lips 
on the subject. All I know is, that I should not have believed it my- 
self, had I been only told of it. I must beg, therefore, that you will not 
make any undue use of this communication, by handing my letter about 
to any one. The friend for whom you ask the information is perfectly 
welcome to read it, or I should not have written it. If the case were 
my own, the world should be welcome to it; but a young female of 
much sensibility might be much embarrassed, by finding the world at 
large in possession of all particulars on her recovery, should God so 
please to permit. 

'• * I am, &c." ' 

Mr. Colquhoun, in the c: Isis Revelata," has collected several similar 
cases. 



r 



134 APPENDIX. 

One is the case of a boy, named Divaud, residing at Vevey. The 
Philosophical Society of Lausanne examined into this case, and reported 
the facts. The committee testify, that the boy read, when his eyes were 
perfectly shut ; that he wrote accurately ; " though we put a thick piece 
of paper before his eyes, he continued to form each character with the 
same distinctness as before." " He has told the title of a book, when 
there was a thick plank placed between it and his eyes." Many other 
singular circumstances are narrated of this natural somnambulist. 

Another instance of clairvoyance, is that of a student, who, during a 
severe nervous complaint, experienced several attacks of somnambulism. 
Professor Feder, of Gottingen, is the authority for this case. Several 
facts are given, from which it is evident that this somnambulist saw dis- 
tinctly without the use of his eyes. 

The " Transactions of the Medical Society of Breslau" mention the 
case of a ropemaker, who was frequently overtaken by sleep, whose 
eyes were then firmly closed, and in this state he would continue his 
work with as great ease as when awake. But this somnambulist " could 
not see when his eyes iv ere forced open.''' 1 

Dr. Knoll gives the example of a gardener, who became a somnambu- 
list, and in that state performed a variety of occupations, requiring light 
and the use of the eyes, with which he dispensed. Among other things, 
he put the thread through the eye of a needle, and sewed his clothes. 

Lord Monboddo has recorded a curious case of somnambulism, in 
which a girl in his neighborhood performed a variety of acts with her 
eyes shut. 

Dr. Schultz, of Hamburgh, mentions a patient, who wrote, and dis- 
tinguished colors, and recognized the numbers of cards, and cut figures 
in paper, with her eyes fast closed. " In order to be certain, that upon 
these occasions she made no use of her eyes, they were bandaged upon 
the approach of the convulsions which preceded the somnambulism." 

Moritz's " Psychological Magazine" gives an account of a boy, who 
frequently fell asleep suddenly ; and although his eyes were completely 
closed, was able to see and discriminate all objects presented to him. 

Dr. Abercrombie in his " Intellectual Powers," and Dr. Dyce, of Ab- 
erdeen, in the " Edinburgh Philosophical Transactions," have described 
cases of a very similar character; but they have been so often quoted, 
and are so familiar to the reader, that further reference is unnecessary. 

Those who are anxious to pursue the subject, should consult the " Isis 
Revelata," in which these cases are more fully detailed. 

Manv other instances might be adduced, all illustrative of this often 
repeated statement, that Mesmeric phenomena are nothing else than 
what Nature of her own accord has produced in the cases of the common 
somnambulist. 

Let but the reader bear this fact in mind, and surely his incredulity as 
to the wonders of Mesmerism might receive considerable abatement. 

The additional point is, that when this somnambulistic condition is 
artificially obtained, a sympathetic and curative influence is often in- 
duced, conducting the philosopher to a fresh region of physiological in- 
quiry. 

In short, man does not live for himself alone. Man must be reared by 
man ; must be taught by man ; must be comforted and healed by man. 
We are all necessary the one to the other ; we are all formed from the 
same clay, and are hastening to the same end ; and, while our sojourn 
continues on this earth, are all intimately identified with each other's 



1 



APPENDIX. 



135 



happiness. As that wild, but powerful writer, Thomas Carlyle, in one 
of the wildest and most powerful of his writings, " The French Revolu- 
tion," speaking on the very subject of this work, says : " And so under 
the strangest new vesture, the old great truth begins again to be reveal- 
ed, that man is what we call a miraculous creature, with miraculous 
power over men; and on the whole, with such a life in him, and such a 
world round him, as victorious Analysis, with her physiologies, nervous 
systems, physic and metaphysic, will never completely name ; to say 
nothing of explaining." 



THE ENE. 



f/y 



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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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3>ttst $uttl(0firtr. 

BY BENJAMIN & YOUNG. 
TEXAS ; BY WILLIAM KENNEDY, ESQ., 

In one volume octavo, French paper covers ; price twenty-five cents. 

THE BOOK OF BRITISH BALLADS, 

Edited by S. C. Hall, with preliminary remarks to each ballad, and 
and introduction by Park Benjamin. Neatly bound, price 50 cts. 

PUSS IN BOOTS, 

With twelve beautiful illustrations in lithograph, tinted, by George 
Endicott, told in good old prose and in modern verse*, 
by Mrs. Frances S. Osgood. 
This edition is still more costly than the original issued by Murray 
in London. Printed on fine paper and bound in English muslin, gild- 
ed and stamped in gold : Price $1. 

THE PROHIBITED COMEDY, 

RICHELIEU IN LOVE ; OR, THE YOUTH OF CHARLES I. 

An Historical Comedy, in Five Acts. In one vol. 8vo., French pa- 
per covers. Price 12£ cents. 

THE DUTIES OF MARRIED LIFE, 

By Dr. Foster. 
In one volume duodecimo, neatly bound in muslin. Price 25 cents. 

POETRY: 

A Satire by Park Benjamin. Price twenty-five cents. 

THE HISTORY OF PALESTINE, 

By John Kitto, editor of The Pictorial Bible, handsomely illustrated 
with engravings. Price fifty cents. 



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